AUBURN — Five city employees, including the fire chief, have been laid off and four other positions have been identified for elimination, the city manager wrote in a memo to employees dated April 8.

City Manager Howard Kroll wrote that Fire Chief Frank Roma, a Fire Department planner, a Public Services Department planner, a building maintenance technician and an electrician have been let go. 

“These hardworking, highly skilled and dedicated employees have provided valuable service to the people of Auburn,” Kroll wrote.

He said the cuts were made to meet financial hurdles facing the city. 

Kroll is scheduled to present his 2016-17 budget to city councilors and the public at 5:30 p.m. Monday, but councilors have known for weeks that a low fund balance would make balancing the budget difficult.

Auburn’s budget policy calls for the city to maintain about 12.5 percent of its annual expenditures in an unassigned fund balance, enough to run the city for about a month and a half. For the 2015 fiscal year, the unassigned balance is $4.97 million. That’s about 6.3 percent of the annual expenditures, and the city would have to bank about $3.5 million to get it built back up.

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said Saturday that the budget process will be difficult.

Kroll has suggested restructuring and combining of departments was likely to reduce administrative staff, LaBonte said.

“The contributions of the team members like Chief Roma are not diminished by the difficult decisions we find the city needing to make in this budget, and I’m thankful for their service to our community,” the mayor said. “Even with these changes, city management and the City Council still have a challenging process ahead of us to protect core city services and balance the budget.” 

Deputy Fire Chiefs Tim Allen and Geoff Lowe will share acting chief duties for the time being.