The city plans to brown out fire companies downtown as well as in Avondale, South Fairmount, Northside, Oakley and the West End for the rest of this year in an effort to keep the city's fire department from going over budget. City Manager Valerie Lemmie had asked five city departments - fire, police, parks, recreation, and public services - to cut spending.

Each department submitted cost-cutting proposals that could save the city about $4.2 million on an estimated $7.8 million general fund deficit for the budget year that ends in December. The fire department took the biggest hit by eliminating roughly $2.4 million in spending - more than half coming through brownouts.

Councilman David Crowley introduced a motion during council's finance committee meeting Tuesday that pledged council would not consider brownouts as a solution to budget woes in 2005 and 2006.

The motion also called for the city to use any additional revenues collected in the next three months to reduce the number of brownouts this year. The measure passed unanimously.

"I don't want this to become a way of doing business in the future," Crowley said. "No one on the city wants to see brown-outs even on a temporary basis.

BROWN-OUTS

Each day the Cincinnati Fire Department staffs 40 fire companies within 26 firehouses. City officials plan to reduce daily staffing at six of them including: • Company 14, Fifth Street and Central Avenue, downtown • Company 29, West Liberty Street, West End • Company 32, 650 Forest Ave., Avondale • Company 31, 4401 Marburg Ave., Oakley • Company 21, 2131 State Ave., South Fairmount • Company 20, 1668 Blue Rock Road, Northside

"The prospect of making them permanent is beyond drastic - it is frightening," Crowley said.

About 100 firefighters packed council chambers to listen to a presentation on the planned cuts. Cincinnati's fire union had submitted its own money-saving proposal, but it was rejected because city officials said it wouldn't save money quickly enough.

Union President Joe Diebold told council members that brownouts were "risky business," saying they would increase response time - and any delays could cost lives and property.

"Closing fire companies is dangerous," Diebold said. "No matter how you look at it, you are gambling with the lives of citizens and the lives of those who visit our city."

Fire Chief Robert Wright said brownouts were "the least harmful method" to quickly save $1.4 million. Wright said certain neighborhoods were targeted for brownouts because they had more than one fire engine housed there.

"If there was a single engine, that station was not considered," Wright said, noting there are 14 firehouses with multiple trucks. "It is not my preference, but we don't have another option."

Rising utility costs, fleet maintenance and unanticipated overtime were the primary causes for the department exceeding its budgets. Wright said that, during the first eight months of this year, the fire department averaged about seven firefighters per day working overtime at about $962 per shift. The department had budgeted for just three per day.

Paul Green, president of the Northside Community Council, said the city should divert money from other areas instead of the fire department. Green said he was shocked to learn the city spends about $500,000 a year on the arts.

"I love the arts, but nobody is leaving Cincinnati for the suburbs because we don't give enough to the arts," Green said.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com