PORTLAND — Jeff Monroe, Portland’s well-known and outspoken director of Ports and Transportation, is among the workers to be laid off by the city today.

Monroe, a former ship captain who comes from a seafaring family, has been in charge of the ports for the past decade. He helped oversee changes in security at the Portland International Jetport, and along the city’s waterfront, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It’s tough right now,” Monroe said of the layoffs, expected to be announced at 2 p.m. today by city manager Joseph Gray Jr. “But it is what it is.”

Monroe had not planned to speak publicly about losing his job until after the announcement, but said a news report on a local television station prompted him to make the disclosure.

Gray will announce an unspecified number of layoffs to offset lagging revenues, and spiking costs. Projected revenues are down $3.5 million for the coming fiscal year, compared to the previous year. And projected costs are up $3 million. The city has 1,400 employees.

City spokesperson Nicole Clegg has compared the financial situation to the recession of the early 1990s.

Monroe expects to stay on his $83,000-a-year job until the end of May. He said he is proud of many accomplishments on the job, including his role in attracting several new airlines to the jetport, and bringing more cruise ships and passengers into the port.

Monroe has been an outspoken promoter of the city, and he has urged officials of various transportation organizations to work together. He said he feels he organized “a definite coordination of the transportation system.”

“It went from a series of different transportation parcels to something that worked together very well,” he said. “I guess if I’m gonna go, it’s good to go on a high.”

Prior to taking the job in Portland, Monroe was deputy port director for the Massachusetts Port Authority in Boston. He held posts at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and SUNY Maritime College, and before that he was involved in maritime businesses in Portland, New York, Delaware and Texas. Monroe is a graduate of the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.