NEWBURGH – Layoffs are “inevitable,” Acting Newburgh City Manager Dwight Douglas told city employees at a closed door meeting on Monday.

The number of those impacted could be reduced if everyone gives up 12 days per year without pay, which could save the city $1 million, Douglas said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.

The one day per month furloughs would not prevent layoffs, but they may reduce the number, the city manager said.

No layoffs have been announced, he said. “These are painful economic times both for the City of Newburgh, and for the personnel whose jobs will be lost,” he said. “It appears likely that as we analyze the status of the 2009 budget, we may have to institute some layoffs this year.”

Mayor Nicholas Valentine said Douglas did the right thing by laying out the city’s options to employees and the public.

Furloughs in lieu of layoffs would be a better way to handle the financial crisis, the mayor said, but time will tell how things play out. A fall tax auction also has the potential to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars that could help ease the financial crunch, he said.

Douglas said the hiring freeze implemented in March and other cost-saving measures “are likely not sufficient to bring in a balanced 2009 budget.”

Last month, Newburgh Town officials laid off nine full-time and four part-time employees without notice, which set off a firestorm of criticism.