Cincinnati police could take the biggest hit in layoffs this year to make up for the city's $28 million deficit.

City Manager Milton Dohoney proposes to lay off 138 members of the police department, but he said the number of officers assigned to neighborhood patrols will not change, and neither will the numbers assigned to each of the five districts.

That would leave civilians in the department, of which there are about 140, and officers assigned to investigative and other jobs.

The cuts likely will prompt Cincinnati police to do fewer things, said Chief Tom Streicher. He wasn't specific but mentioned possibly sending officers to fewer minor car accidents in cases where no one is hurt.

"This layoff is having a significant impact across the government," Dohoney said. "This is a very difficult day for us."

Both Streicher and Dohoney emphasized that there's still an opportunity for the Fraternal Order of Police to agree to contract concessions, which would lessen the layoffs.

The police union, as well as four other unions that represent city workers, declined to take six unpaid days this year that non-union employees are taking. There's still time for the police to change their minds on the furloughs, Dohoney said.

The FOP's executive board will meet in the next couple of days to discuss whether to ask the membership for concessions.

"I think there are a lot of games being played here," said Kathy Harrell, FOP president.

She said members were interested in discussing concessions until they saw that council's finance committee on Monday voted to spend $3.5 million to lease wheeled recycling carts. Mayor Mark Mallory has not placed that proposal on the agenda for a full council vote.

The 138 police positions are part of 319 position cuts throughout the city. Of those 319, 295 are positions now filled -- 208 of them tull-time, 87 part-time. Exact positions have not yet been disclosed. The city employs about 6,000.

Twenty of those laid off are members of the CODE middle management union and 43 are AFSCME members. None of those laid off are firefighters.

The list of full-time positions cut also includes: Four nursing supervisors and three public health nurses; four litter control officers; 10 sanitarians; seven directors of community centers; three lawyers from the law department; and a person who takes care of horses for the police department.

Dohoney acknowledges that recreation center programs and hours will be cut for the remainder of the year, that the litter control program won't be able to get to all complaints in a timely manner and that it'll take longer to clean up the streets after winter storms.

"There is still work that has to be done," Dohoney said in his memo. "As stated before, this is a fluid process in which revenue, employee contracts, timing and budget priorities all play a part in the moving picture of balancing the budget."

Dohoney released the numbers today to union presidents and announced them publicly via e-mail at noon.

Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz said she was working on trying to reduce the number of police layoffs.

"It's unacceptable," she said. "You don't take a 3-to-1 ratio of cops to everyone else."

It was necessary to cut officers, Dohoney's memo said, because sworn police personnel have been spared in previous years as other departments have taken cuts.

"While we have made the gut-wrenching decision of positions to be eliminated, we now will have to start the complicated process of "bumping," which allows people in seniority in certain positions to move into a position of lateral or lower classification," Dohoney's memo said.

Though the layoffs were announced just two hours before City Council's meeting - the only one until after Labor Day - council did not discuss them. Council members Leslie Ghiz, Chris Bortz and Chris Monzel tried to bring it up, but Mayor Mark Mallory shut them down, saying the matter was not on council's agenda. The mayor controls the agenda.

The mayor's decision prompted grumbling among the public services workers, firefighters and police officers in the audience.

Ghiz was angry: "I cannot believe that just happened."

Laketa Cole said she, too, had hoped there would be some time for discussion. Jeff Berding also said he wanted to discuss it.

Mallory declined to talk to reporters after the meeting. An aide said to call him later to set up an interview.