Marion Barry, Washington's embattled city council member and former mayor, dodged another bullet last week when a District prosecutor declined to prosecute him on charges of stalking his ex-girlfriend. Barry was arrested and briefly detained by U.S. Park Service police July 4th after the woman, 40-year-old Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, complained that he was "bothering" her.

 But Mr. Barry may not be completely out of the woods yet. The controversy kicked up by his arrest led reporters to dig out the fact that Mr. Barry had put Ms. Watts-Brighthaupt on his payroll by awarding her a $60,000 contract to study "poverty reduction," to be paid out of taxpayer dollars. That proved too much for current D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and others, who demanded the city council open an ethics probe of Mr. Barry. On Friday, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray announced the council would hire an independent law firm to look into the matter.

Mr. Barry meanwhile spent the day denouncing his arrest by the Park Police while studiously avoiding any discussion of his relationship with Ms. Watts-Brighthaupt or her lucrative contract -- a pretty neat trick. In any case, it's unlikely the council will do much about its errant member no matter how the investigation turns out. Nobody wants to take Mr. Barry on because he's a local icon with a still large and devoted following despite his well-publicized shortcomings. Of course, the council could surprise everyone by taking away Mr. Barry's committee chairmanship or seniorty or at the very least by reprimanding him. But any of those actions would require a show of far more political courage than that august body has ever evinced in the past, so don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.