HOUSTON -- Four mayor pro tem employees linked to a bonus scandal will find out their employment status Wednesday, while one vows to fight for her job, KPRC Local 2 reported. Termination hearings were held Tuesday.

Rosie Hernandez, Florence Watkins, Christopher May and Teresa Orta stand accused of improperly receiving $140,000 in bonuses in 2005.

The workers have been temporarily suspended from their jobs, but Tuesday's hearings, which are required under civil service law to terminate the employment of a civil service employee, could leave them without a job.

Two of the four employees' hearings ended before noon. Orta's hearing was first and lasted about 30 minutes. The hearing for May, a City Hall receptionist, was second. Both denied comment to KPRC Local 2 as they left the courthouse.

Hernandez, the manager, spoke through her attorney, saying she was going to fight to keep her job.

"They other side of the story is going to come out, but I think what you've been hearing up to this point has been merely an elected official's posturing," attorney Walter Boyd III said.

Boyd would not discuss specifics.

An announcement of the workers' future employment with the city would be made Wednesday.

However, the employees are expected to lose their jobs after White said Monday that the Office of Inspector General's report showed evidence the workers violated city rules against an official position being used for personal gain and falsifying records.

Controller's Office Noticed Irregularities

City Controller Annise Parker said her office noticed payroll irregularities several months ago, but each time her staff wanted to dig deeper, they were waved off by the Finance and Administration department.

"The biggest mistake was not being aggressive enough and not being persistent enough," Parker said. "I'd like to see my office be more aggressive. I don't think they did something they shouldn't have done, but they should be more aggressive about it in the future -- more persistent. We shouldn't take no for an answer."

But Parker said until the scandal broke, the issue was never brought directly to her attention. Instead, staff members handled everything.

"There were places that we made mistakes. That has been noted by my staff. We're not going to make those mistakes again. By extrapolation, I’m assuming (there are) other areas of the controller's office and we're going to clean those up," Parker said.

While the investigation cleared Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado and other employees, many council members are questioning why the Finance and Administration Department did not catch the problem sooner.

"I'm still awaiting understanding on how there could be an employee of F&A actually sitting in the Mayor Pro Tem's Office who could not notice that this amount of money was flowing out of the office and was draining the budget. The budget was in the red well before the end of the fiscal year," Councilwoman Shelly Sekula-Gibbs said.

Judy Gray Johnson, the director of the city's Finance and Administration Department, said during a fiscal affairs committee meeting Tuesday morning that the Mayor Pro Tem's Office was sent at least three warnings that they were going over budget.

KPRC Local 2 left messages for Johnson but she did not return the calls.

"I didn't get them," Alvarado said.

She said not only did she not see any warning letters, no one from the Finance and Administration Department contacted her directly.

"When something would potentially become a problem in my district office, I would get an e-mail. There were times I would get an e-mail from Regina Dixon in F&A. That never happened with the pro tem office," Alvarado said.

Berry Fills In As Mayor Pro Tem

Councilman Michael Berry will fill in as mayor pro tem until Alvarado decides to return to the position at the end of a grand jury investigation.

Berry told KPRC Local 2 that his first task as acting mayor pro tem would be to determine how much money is left in the office's budget.

"Our main goal is to get us through June 30, the end of this fiscal year, without charging the taxpayer another penny, without charging any of the council offices another penny. So, it's going to be tough for us to do but we are going to do it," Berry said.

Alvarado temporarily stepped down as mayor pro tem on Monday. The announcement came the same day the Office of Inspector General's report on the scandal was released.

Alvarado said she never received any warnings concerning her office's budget.

Mayor Bill White reiterated Tuesday his support for Alvarado, who was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Office of Inspector General's report.

"I respect somebody who takes accountability and accepts some consequences for lack of supervision of that office," White said.

The investigation has been forwarded to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.