MIDDLETOWN — City Council will consider severance packages when it meets tonight, Jan. 5, for seven city employees being laid off later this month.

City Manager Judy Gilleland said she proposed providing each employee with a severance package equivalent to one month of their regular salary. The amount varies by employee, running between $4,500 and $7,000 per person. The total cost of the package for all seven employees would be approximately $38,000, Gilleland said.

“These are very, very difficult and sad decisions to make,” Gilleland said. “But they’re necessary for our organization given the budgetary constraints under which we’re operating.”

Second Ward Councilman A.J. Smith said he would like to see the city offer the affected employees a choice between staying on for five additional months or taking the severance package.

“I don’t think we should be sweeping the rug out from under our employees’ feet,” Smith said. “We’re in tough economic times as a city and our employees have to make sacrifices. But my goal is to look out of the best interest of the people, not the government.”

Gilleland said she appreciates council members wanting to retain employees for as long as possible, but said the $213,000 needed to fund those positions for five months is simply “not in the budget.”

“There really is no way we can lay off one employee effective January and allow another employee to continue working for five or nine months,” she said.

Smith said he plans on “asking a lot of questions when (this) piece of legislation comes forth.

“I would like to see options for employees, but I don’t know what the majority of council thinks,” he said. “It all depends on what dialogue is going to be.”

Additional layoffs are possible in the future, Gilleland said, but hopefully not for the remainder of 2010. Depending on how council discussions proceed at the end of the first quarter regarding several unfilled positions in the police and fire departments, she said there could be “other ramifications depending on which way those decisions go.”

City Council also will vote on emergency legislation creating a special projects manager position through Middletown Municipal Court.

Council meets at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers on the lower level of the Middletown City Building, One Donham Plaza.