Former City Workers Accept Responsibility

When I first heard about the four employees who illegally gave themselves bonuses, I said to myself - they have a lot of hootspau. Now it is nice to learn that they have accepted responsibility and cleared two other workers who were falsely accused.

More than two years after Mayor Bill White condemned four City Hall staffers for committing a "betrayal of trust" for taking unauthorized bonuses and raises, two of the workers agreed Friday to apologize, spend 10 years on probation and pay back their profits.

Rosita Hernandez and Florence Watkins were running the Office of Mayor Pro Tem in 2006 when authorities began questioning bonuses and raises worth more than $209,000 for themselves and two underlings. All four were fired in March 2006.

Hernandez must repay $77,000 as part of the plea agreement on a felony theft charge. Watkins agreed to pay back $67,000. Both took the stand briefly to clear the names of two lower-level Office of the Mayor Pro Tem employees indicted in the case.

After hearing from Hernandez and Watkins that co-workers Teresa Orta and Christopher Mays didn't know anything about the scam, prosecutors dismissed the charges against Orta and Mays.