Mayor Coleen Seng announced Monday she will impose a hiring freeze this week to help the city save money as it figures out how to close a projected 2007-2008 budget gap of nearly $9 million.

For the past several years, the city has faced an ever-widening gap between revenue and spending that is expected to grow to nearly $22 million in four years at current spending levels.

The city must balance its budget, so city leaders deal with the deficit by cutting spending and/or raising fees or taxes. But as the gap widens, additional cuts are becoming more challenging to find without cutting city employees.

After hearing last week’s budget forecast, Seng said, she reviewed the budget and vacancies and decided to stop filling city employee vacancies “until further notice.”

“This will be helpful as we move forward in preparing the next budget,” she said.

The city has about 45 open positions in various stages of being filled, and will only fill those that would cost more to cover through overtime.

An initial review indicates that would apply to about 10 of the jobs openings, all in public safety and StarTran, the city’s public transit service.

The mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Bowen, said there are vacancies in a variety of departments, including the health department, libraries, public works, police, parks and 911 dispatching.

Department heads were informed of the freeze during a Monday meeting with the mayor.

Public Works Director Karl Fredrickson said he has a handful of open positions, including a couple of bus drivers, an assistant sanitary engineer and an equipment operator. He said his department will just have to “make do” and prioritize.

“We simply extend whatever it is we’re doing to cover, or not cover (for vacant positions) as the case may be,” he said. “It just prolongs the schedule for getting our services done.”

Former Mayor Don Wesely also froze hirings in 2002, when the city was predicting a $5.5 million budget deficit.

In October, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey ordered a hiring freeze so the city could end the year with a positive balance.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.