City officials in Mount Vernon announced Thursday that layoffs and furloughs are off the table for now.

Last week, Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard warned that she needed about $5.5 million, or she would be forced to furlough every city employee or layoff dozens of workers.

Patterson-Howard says the problem is that the City Council has not had a chance to look at the books because City Comptroller Deborah Reynolds refuses to let them.

MORE: DPW union says Mount Vernon hasn't paid overtime hours in nearly 3 months

News 12 has learned that as an alternative, the City Council looked at the results of the last audit that showed there was $16 million in the budget and the city only spent about $8 million.

"We've already spoken to our unions, spoken to our employees, right now this is the fix for now," says Patterson-Howard. "If overtime is blown out, if revenues don't come in, if expenditures aren't monitored, we will have to revisit the discussion around furloughs and layoffs."

The budget fix doesn't address the millions of dollars owed to Department of Public Works employees for overtime or some vendors.