Against the wishes of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the City Council on Wednesday voted in favor of a three-month hiring freeze at the Los Angeles Police Department to help ease the city's budget shortfall.

The move would save nearly $4 million over the next two years, city budget officials said, and would reduce the number of sworn officers to about 9,890 by July 1.

That number is lower than Villaraigosa’s campaign pledge to maintain a force of 10,000 cops. It also falls short of the minimum of 9,963 officers that Chief Charlie Beck has said was necessary to avoid compromising public safety.

[Update 8:57 p.m. The council voted to defer until after July 1 the hiring of new officers-- which will affect at least one police academy class of about 50 officers -- but it voted to complete the hiring of the April class of police recruits that is already in progress.]

The freeze was one of several council actions Wednesday to reduce the budget gap for this fiscal year from $46.8 million to about $4.1 million. On the recommendation of City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the council also voted to sweep into the city's reserve fund about $41 million in unspent money from various city agencies.