On May 2, 1994, Oliver Thomas was sworn in as the Councilmember for District B. He was reelected to the post in 1998 and served as the District B representative until 2002, when he successfully ran for an At-Large position on the New Orleans City Council. Thomas remained a Councilmember At-Large until 2007, when he resigned after pleading guilty to bribery charges. Thomas was re-elected to the City Council as the District E representative in 2021, where he currently serves.

Oliver Thomas was born in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in 1957. He graduated from Joseph S. Clark Senior High School and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Santa Fe. He is a Fellow of the Loyola University Institute of Politics and a graduate of the Metropolitan Area Committee Leadership Forum. During the 1980s and early 1990s he served as an assistant to Councilman Jim Singleton.

Councilman Thomas was very involved in community and civic activities. He was the founder of the Boys-to-Men Mentoring Program at Woodson Middle School, Board Member of Dryades YMCA, Board Member of Broadmoor Improvement Association, Operation Comeback Advisory Committee (Preservation Research Center), Board Member Each One - Save One Mentoring Program and he was a member of the Young Leadership Council.

Councilman Thomas was a former president of the New Orleans Home Mortgage Authority and a former Vice President of the Council on Aging's Senior Companion Program. He served on the boards of the Rivergate Development Corporation, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the Union Passenger Terminal Board. In 1993, WDSU-TV awarded the Jefferson Award for Community Service to Councilman Oliver Thomas.