Three employees of of public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard’s Los Angeles office who “had management responsibility” for the $3 million-per-year contract with the city’s Department of Water & Power that is now part of a criminal investigation have left.

“As of today, three employees who had been associated with the DWP account , Doug Dowie, Steve Getzug and John Stodder , are no longer employees of Fleishman Hillard,” said Richard Kline, vice president and manager of the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Dowie, who was general manager of the office until he was put on paid leave last summer, had the most senior responsibility for the contract from 1998 to 2004, Kline said. Getzug, a senior vice president, handled communications for the contract from 1998 to 2004. Stodder, another senior vice president, worked on the contract from 2002 to 2004.

Both Dowie and Stodder have retained their own attorneys , a move that sometimes indicates they are targets or subjects of the investigation, several former prosecutors said. Several months ago, the Business Journal reported that federal and county investigators had called in or interviewed several current and former Fleishman employees.