Like Federal, state and other local governments, Cincinnati needs to trim its budget. But if a group of vocal supporters have their way, those cuts won't come at the expense of revenue-generating efforts to increase the city's sustainability.
City Administrator Milton Dohoney's office proposed cuts include disbanding the city's
Office of Environmental Quality. The office's responsibilities include managing energy conservation and use in city facilities, obtaining grant funding for city projects that enhance the city's environmental friendliness and working with the city and Hamilton County to improve the region's air quality. Under the proposed plan, the OEQ would be absorbed into the Department of Public Services and the Finance Department's Risk Management Division. Five OEQ staff members would be absorbed into other city departments; two would lose their jobs.
"To call the City Manager's proposal of eliminating the OEQ short-sighted would be a gross understatement," says Libby Hunter, a green realtor for Comey & Shepherd and chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's Cincinnati Residential Green Building committee. She argues that the numbers don't add up.
"The OEQ has increased public participation in the recycling program to more than 75 percent of households, while creating 20 new city jobs and decreasing the city's net recycling cost by more than $1 million," she says. "OEQ has raised over $14 million of private investment to improve the energy efficiency of city buildings and reduce the city's utility bill by over $1.2 million a year, and is pushing to finalize a plan with a private vendor to install a solar array at no cost to the City that could generate $250,000 a year in electricity."
At the first of five planned hearings on the budget, 21 of the 23 citizens who spoke to council did so to voice their support for keeping the OEQ. Likewise, groups of concerned residents have launched an
online petition drive and a
Facebook page promoting grassroots action on the proposal.
"This is about economic development as well as quality of life," says Danny Korman, owner of sustainable goods retailer
Park + Vine. He notes that Cincinnati ranks 27th in the nation's metropolitan areas for green jobs, and that the OEQ - and city-level green projects - play a role in keeping the city current in the world of sustainability. "As someone who loves this city and has a business in the city, this would really be a huge void in the city to not have it around."
The Cincinnati Green Group, an affiliation of environmental and sustainability advocates, is encouraging citizens to speak up at budget hearings planned for August 10, 15 and 16. If groups as large as the one that spoke at the first meeting continue to voice their concerns over the matter, council member Laure Quinlivan says the grassroots effort could prompt council to act.
"I can tell you in my short experience at city hall, I've seen it happen," she says, noting that proposals that would have closed pools and cut nature education in city parks were both amended after strong public outcry.
"I think citizen power will work if people continue for fight for what we have," she says.
According to Korman, this is not a fight to be left for the future.
"Once you let something like this go, it's hard to get it back," he says. "We're concerned that once we lose it we're never going to see it again."
By Matt Cunningham
Follow Matt on Twitter @cunningcontent
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