LORAIN — If the city can’t find additional revenue and employees refuse to take a pay cut, as many as 39 city workers will be laid off before the end of the year, Safety Director Phil Dore said Thursday.

The city sent letters Wednesday to the city’s five bargaining units asking whether those workers would consider taking a 7 percent pay cut to offset a projected $530,000 shortfall for 2009. That’s on top of 2008’s $1.3 million deficit.

City officials plan to meet with all five units today.

“We’re just out of money,” Dore said. “If revenue remains flat — no increase and no decrease — we know for a fact that we’ll have a reduction in property tax of $330,000.”

There are three options, Dore said: Council can find a way to increase revenue. If that doesn’t happen, option No. 2 is to “reduce the amount that we pay people,” and if that doesn’t work, “the only thing left is we have to pay less people,” Dore said.

The city’s firefighters have already given up their 3.5 percent raise or benefits equaling 3.5 percent, so an additional 7 percent pay cut would hurt, said Fire Chief Tom Brown.

“I’m not in the contract with the union, but obviously that would be a huge cut for those guys,” Brown said. “What concerns me the most as a manager is people being laid off. I’m down two positions for retirement, and if I lose another seven, I’d be down nine since the beginning of the year. It will be tough to operate in a safe and efficient manner.”

Brown said he hopes the city and Council “talk seriously about how to increase revenue before they keep cutting and cutting and cutting.”

The agreement reached with firefighters in April has a 30-day opt-out clause, which means either side can cancel the agreement with 30 days’ notice. If the city opts out in order to lay off workers, firefighters would have to be reimbursed the raises they gave up, Dore said.

“We would never take that option unless we’re backed into a corner and can’t make payroll,” Dore said. “If we don’t change our income or level of payroll, then we’ll have no choice but to reduce the number of people we pay. … You can’t sit at the beach and put your head in the sand and pretend the tide isn’t rising. We have to do something.”

So far, the dispatchers have said “no” to the pay cut, Dore said, adding the other four bargaining units hadn’t yet responded by Thursday afternoon.

“We took the responsible tact of asking (the unions), ‘Are you willing to do this?’ ” Dore said. “We’re going to meeting them all so they can … make an informed decision.”

Layoffs are likely, but not a foregone conclusion, Dore said.

“Things change. Nothing is set in stone. There’s the possibility Council will find a way to raise revenue and the bargaining units can make some sort of small concession” and fewer layoffs would be required,” Dore said. “It could be a combination of all three options.”

If more revenue isn’t found and employees refuse to take a pay cut, Dore said seven firefighters, 21 nonsafety forces employees, three dispatchers, three corrections officers and five police officers will be laid off. A policing grant that was going to be used to hire five new police officers could be used to save the five police officers if jobs are cut, Dore said. Regardless, the outlook is grim.

“I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that if we can’t find a reduction in payroll or additional revenue, there will be no department that will go untouched,” Dore said.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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