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Dell won’t say how many jobs it has cut since it made two rounds of layoffs at its Forsyth County factory more than a month ago.

But the company is about to break its silence.

Dell, which is receiving $37 million in local incentive money, says it is ready to make a public report to the Winston-Salem City Council on Monday.

The company will bring several executives to discuss whatever the council wishes, said company spokesman Venancio Figueroa.

Mayor Allen Joines called the meeting after Dell cut jobs twice in March and April but refused to tell the city or the media how many people it was laying off.

He has asked the company to “provide detailed information about employment” at the plant.

Figueroa would not discuss the details of the report on Friday.

“We’re going to be there to provide an update on our operations,” he said.

Deputy City Manager Derwick L. Paige, who handles the company’s reports for the city, said Friday he has no advance information on what Dell plans to say.

The comments will come from the highest levels, however, Figueroa said.

Executives attending will be Frank Miller, company vice president for Americas Manufacturing Operations in North and South America; Mehran Ravanpay, director of North Carolina Operations; Donna Oldham; senior communications manager and Figueroa.

Joines called the meeting in early April.

“We view ourselves as partners in the project,” Joines said April 3. “We’re very proud of Dell and very appreciative of the remaining jobs there … and want them to be successful. On the other hand, we have to be viewed as a partner, and citizens expect us as elected officials to represent their interests.”

Dell was recruited to Forsyth County in 2004 with a state and local incentives package worth at least

$280 million over 20 years. To receive annual payments, the company must make yearly reports to the state and the city to show it meets certain employment levels.

It has already invested more than the required

$100 million in plant and equipment, and must employ 1,700 workers by September 2010 to continue receiving local incentives.

At the end of 2008, Dell reported to the state that it employed 1,400.

But some officials believe the company owes the public at least the courtesy of releasing the number of recent layoffs, given the amount of government revenue involved.

Since the beginning of discussions with the state, Dell has insisted on complete secrecy, even attempting to keep its average salaries secret when the state was preparing to announce the company’s selection of Winston-Salem.

Former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr, who mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit in 2005 to block the incentives deal, said, “That money could have been used for bonuses, corporate junkets, who knows what that’s being used for. It could have been used overseas to outsource jobs. Yes, I think they have an obligation to discuss this.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com