Facing the worst financial crisis in Los Angeles history, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made a new plea on Wednesday for city unions to return to the bargaining table or face the prospects of thousands of layoffs, along with unpaid furloughs for all civilian workers.

At the same time, the City Council's top analyst recommended a freeze on the mayor's priority of hiring more police officers and said the city's situation could grow even worse next week if voters turn down a series of ballot propositions designed to balance the state budget.

"I do not want to do this," Villaraigosa said during a City Hall news conference where he sought to explain his call for a fiscal emergency by the city, clearing the way for officials to order layoffs and furloughs.

"I don't want to add to unemployment lines. I don't want to shortchange our road repairs. I don't want to reduce library hours or take traffic cops off the street. But that's what it could mean. I wasn't elected to be popular. I was elected to make the tough decisions and be honest with the public."

Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller offered a grim assessment of the city's finances to the Budget and Finance Committee. In a written report, he said the city needs to achieve $326 million in personnel savings. He described that as the equivalent of 6,922 civilian layoffs or requiring 82 furlough days for every civilian employee (equivalent to a 32 percent pay cut) or requiring 33 furlough days for all civilian and sworn employees (a 13 percent pay cut).

Pursuing only one of those options alone would be "unacceptable," Miller wrote, so the city should look at a combination of all three.

Ultimately, he said he believes at least 2,600 workers will have to be laid off this year as well as imposing a hard hiring freeze, eliminating new hires for the LAPD and Los Angeles Fire Department and other programs, including an annual review of fees charged by city agencies.

He also recommended 26 furlough days for all civilian workers. He noted the city could save $65 million just by instituting a hiring freeze in sworn police personnel.

"Clearly, we are in an extraordinarily bad position right now," Miller said. "What was presented to you from the mayor was (a) $238 million shared sacrifice. We are still faced with that today."

The budget panel adopted the spending plan as recommended by Miller. It is scheduled to be considered by the full council next Monday.

Villaraigosa said without union concessions, he is considering a combination that would involve laying off more than 3,000 civilian workers and ordering those who remain to take 26 unpaid furlough days in the next year.

Villaraigosa said it was not too late for union leaders to return to the negotiating table and agree to his earlier proposals - foregoing a cost-of-living increase this year, agreeing to furloughs of one hour per week and increasing their pension contributions by 2 percent.

"I know it's not easy to go to your members and ask them to forego a pay raise," Villaraigosa said. "If we don't have an agreement, I am going to have to take these steps."

However, the Coalition of City Unions, representing about 22,000 city workers, continued to voice outrage at the mayor's action.

"For more than 15 months, the severity of the city's financial shortfall has been a well-known fact," the coalition said in a statement.

"Since that time, the coalition has been meeting with representatives and the mayor himself to craft a full solution that met principles he laid out. Last week, the mayor abruptly turned his back on cooperative negotiations."

Villaraigosa disputed that interpretation, saying the unions were focused only on early retirements with a system that would have just added to the city's pension costs.

"We were talking seriously about it," Villaraigosa said. "Maybe they just didn't understand the magnitude of the problem."

Villaraigosa aides said the unions were focused on their proposal - which would have given workers up to five years credit to add to their pensions. The new proposal from the city is to give the workers a cash buyout equivalent to one year's salary to limit the future pension liability and reduce the size of the city workforce.

Miller agreed with the mayor's call for continued negotiations.

"Absent that, the only actions you have available are layoffs, furloughs and a hiring freeze," Miller said.

Other uncertainties come from the state, where local officials expect a loss of revenues.

"Structurally, the city has never gone through the downsizing required here," Miller said. "Getting people off the payrolls as fast as we need will not be easy."

Failure to act will mean even bigger problems in future years - as much as $1 billion in 2010-11, he said.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Westchester, said the city also needs to look at its pension plan and how much it pays retired workers.