Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin plans to eliminate another 165 city jobs, cutting $2 million more than the City Council requested to balance the budget, the mayor told the council Thursday.

The cuts "will have a direct impact on municipal services," Franklin wrote in the letter to the council, but she does not specify how or when the layoffs will take place.

"It's very hard to do," Franklin said in a telephone interview Thursday. "It makes me very sad. [The cuts] impact the lives of children and families. But it is my job now to find reasonable, sensible ways to make the cuts without crippling city government."

Franklin said she tried to make the cuts by removing some vacant positions, but she will have to lay off some city workers. She did not say how many layoffs were planned.

The mayor said she will discuss her plan in greater detail today with each city department.

Her letter says the cuts will "impact public safety services" and the city will not reach its goal of having 2,000 police officers by 2010, the year after Franklin's term ends.

Atlanta police Sgt. Scott Kreher, a police union leader, said the cuts will hurt the department's recruitment efforts for the next five to 10 years.

"For us to cut back on public safety, it's going to dramatically increase crime in the city," Kreher said.

In May, Franklin laid off 441 city workers and eliminated 788 additional positions to balance the city budget for the fiscal year that started July 1.

The city faced a $140 million projected budget shortfall, and Franklin thought the job cuts would make up about half of the difference. The mayor's proposal to fill the shortfall included raising some fees and changing some budget practices.

But the most contentious part of Franklin's plan was raising property taxes to collect the remaining $12 million.

Council members voted June 27 to cut the budget by $14.6 million instead of approving Franklin's proposed tax increase. The mayor blasted the council's action, arguing her plan was more prudent.

Council members initially told Franklin to cut the budget in most city departments by 2.5 percent to make up the $14.6 million. They later voted to have Franklin decide how to make the cuts, though they told the mayor the cuts cannot be made by closing any fire stations, swimming pools or recreation centers.

Council President Lisa Borders said Thursday her colleagues did not want any recreation centers or swimming pools closed because so many families are unable to take vacations this summer.

"It is summertime, and we want them to have fun in the city, particularly with the price of gas at $4 a gallon," she said.

Councilman C.T. Martin said Thursday he does not think more layoffs are needed. Council members have said the city can make the cuts largely by eliminating vacant positions.

Martin said the council can save about $3.2 million by eliminating the city's Management Support Office, which is in charge of purchasing supplies such as paper and providing human resource services to the city's public safety agencies.

"That's not working anyway," Martin said.

City union leader Gina Pagnotta said she hopes nonsupervisory city workers will not be laid off, since a greater percentage of them were let go earlier this year during the first round of budget cuts. "If you cut again, you need to cut the upper management," said Pagnotta, a Public Works employee who is president of the Professional Association of City Employees.

Council members are trying to reduce their own operating budget by 2.5 percent, but have not decided where to cut.