KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The City Council will consider a recommendation to fire the city prosecutor and two assistant prosecutors for allegedly doing non city legal work on city time.

City prosecutor Roger Potter and assistants Michael Dailey and Victoria Thomas were suspended without pay May 30 over the allegations. A hearing officer has now upheld city attorney Galen Beaufort's recommendation that the three be fired, The Kansas City Star reported Friday.

The matter now goes to the city council for a hearing and decision, probably in about two weeks. If the three are fired, they could still appeal to a Human Resources board, the city manager and finally to circuit court.

A 1992 ordinance prohibits city employees from outside employment during "regular assigned working hours" except during a vacation or unpaid leave of absence or with a boss's permission.

Potter, who has headed the prosecutor's office for about 10 years, has said previously that there is a question of how the ordinance applies to the city's full-time attorneys. He said the employee handbook states that attorneys are not required to follow a rigid 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule.

Potter has said he worked long hours weekly on behalf of the city, attended night meetings, accompanied police on weekend vice operations and handled weekend jail duty.

Thomas, who has been with the prosecutor's office full-time since October 1995, has also said she worked long hours and was dedicated to her job as a domestic violence prosecutor.

Dailey, an appeals prosecutor, has worked full-time for the office since 1996.

The suspensions leave two other full-time attorneys, along with part-time lawyers, carrying the work load for the office, which handles hundreds of municipal court cases daily.