Cincinnati's Office of Environmental Management is a somewhat obscure city agency on the sixth floor of the Centennial Building. Even Mayor Charlie Luken has said he doesn't completely understand what the agency does. But just suggest the possibility of cutting it — as Mr. Luken did last week — and environmentalists will tell you exactly what it does.

        “It's comparable to eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency from the federal government,” said Howard Konicov, a member of the city's Environmental Advisory Committee. “We woke up and we read this in the paper and we were horrified.”

        They're not the only ones.

        Also on the city's budgetary chopping block: nature education, school nurses, the litter patrol office, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and a $212,000 teen parenting class called Raising Great Kids.

        Friends of all those programs came out to defend them at a nearly two-hour public hearing Monday night at the Hirsch Recreation Center in Avondale.

        Mr. Luken's unofficial budget — his first as “strong mayor” — emphasizes “direct city services” and the elimination of City Hall bureaucracies he says are redundant, unnecessary and expensive.

        With the city facing a $17 million deficit next year — and $25 million in 2003 — Mr. Luken's budget is a departure from previous belt-tightening measures that attempted to cut costs by 3 percent to 5 percent across-the-board.

        He proposes another $2 million in cuts out of the city manager's already lean $707 million operating budget.

        In a committee meeting Monday afternoon, Mr. Luken told council members to brace for some political pressure.

        “I have never been involved in cutting any budget that we didn't hear that the sky would fall if we made the cuts,” he said. “We all, sitting around here, know that's not true. We all know that we're not getting the bang for the buck that we should.”

        For example, the city spends $426,000 on litter control officers, $180,000 for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and $472,000 for the Office of Environmental Services — and residents in the recent election campaign still complained that the streets aren't clean, Mr. Luken said.

        “I would rather see a street sweeper coming down my street than a billboard that says, "Don't Trash the 'Nati.' Wouldn't you?” he said.

        But Keep Cincinnati Beautiful — the litter education program that designed the slogan and is facing an $80,000 cut from Mr. Luken's budget — does have its supporters.

        “When you send a child home with information, you're reaching their parents, and their parent's parents, and their cousins,” said Jennifer Tribble, a South Avondale teacher. “And all those relatives will pitch in to help keep Cincinnati beautiful.”

        Another budget target: The Office of Environmental Management, with a budget of $472,000, may duplicate efforts of state and federal environmental agencies, Mr. Luken said. The office is responsible for city employee safety, air quality monitoring, lead abatement and environmental education.

        “If the mayor thinks some outside entity will come in and solve those problems, he's mistaken,” Dr. Carl F. Evert of Pleasant Ridge told City Council.

        The lobbying may be working.

        Councilwoman Minette Cooper, vice chairwoman of the Finance Committee, said she thinks council members — especially the newer ones — found the public hearing informative and persuasive.

        “Why would we not monitor the air we breathe?” she said. “What's wrong with us? Are we going to knowingly kill ourselves?”

        Freshman Councilman David Crowley said the size of the cuts Mr. Luken has in mind would result in the “slow death” of some valuable programs.

        Yet other budgetary hot potatoes that have weathered controversy in previous budget cycles received very little attention Monday.

        No one spoke up for the Grassroots Leadership Academy, which the mayor wants to cut by $100,000, and only one nursing home administrator protested the proposed elimination of the city's nursing home inspection program, the only city program of its kind in the state.

        City Council will hold a second public hearing on the budget Wednesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 801 Plum St.

        The budget is scheduled to come to a vote Dec. 19.

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