The Roanoke City Council agreed Thursday to stick with the city administration's proposed 2008-09 budget, which includes spending cuts for constitutional officers, firefighters and most other city departments.

At a public hearing last week, the cuts were protested by 91 city firefighters, Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell, Sheriff Octavia Johnson and Northwest Roanoke recreation advocates.

But at its budget workshop, the council decided to retain all of the administration's proposed cuts. It did make one change outside the operational budget, pulling $90,000 from the city's parks and recreation fund to resurface all four tennis courts at Eureka Park. That action had been requested by a group of citizens at an April council meeting as well at the public hearing.

The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Monday, and there will be little if any discussion of making changes.

"By that time we get to that point, the train has left the station, and that's just a formality of adopting the budget," Mayor Nelson Harris said.

The proposed $260 million budget actually represents a 2.9 percent spending increase from last year, but the revenue increases are either shackled to specific programs or offset by decreases in other revenue sources.

The budget recommends the elimination of 33 city government positions through transfers and attrition, with an additional 11 vacant positions to be left unfunded when the new budget takes effect July 1.

The city hopes to save another $3.5 million with across-the-board budget reductions in all departments.

The Roanoke Fire-EMS Department was asked to reduce its budget from last year's by $8,467. The department would receive an additional $342,000 in funding for fuel and overtime expenses, while also facing $354,000 in reductions from its budgets for administration, airport rescue firefighting and operations.

Fire-EMS Chief David Hoback proposed eliminating six uniformed positions through attrition, moving a secretary to another city department, putting a fire engine out of service, placing a new ambulance in service and moving a part-time ambulance to a different station. The cuts to uniform staff would mean two fewer firefighters on duty a day.

Hoback said the cuts won't hurt the department's response times or its ability to handle emergencies.

"We'll just lose some flexibility," he said. "Obviously, when you lose personnel, you lose flexibility."

The department had planned to reallocate equipment in the future, but had to put those plans into effect sooner than expected because of the budget cuts, Hoback said.

Members of the council asked Hoback questions but seemed satisfied by his answers.

"He assured us multiple times that in his professional opinion, public safety was not jeopardized with these cuts," said Councilman David Trinkle.

The Roanoke Fire Fighter's Association opposes the reductions. Rodney Jordan, the association's president, said its members were disappointed with the council's decision.

The association is worried the changes will hamper the fire department's ability to get adequate equipment and staff to emergencies. The membership is also concerned that while council members are promoting growth in the city, they are cutting the services that protect it.

"It is an injustice to the citizens we serve," Jordan said.

Councilman Brian Wishneff campaigned in part on restoring the fire-EMS department's budget, but he left the council meeting before the discussion occurred.

"Obviously I would not have been able to sway the day," Wishneff said later in the day.

The council chose to allow the closure of public fitness centers based at Addison and Jackson middle schools because of low usage. It also retained budget cuts to constitutional offices. Councilman Sherman Lea said the bulk of those cuts came from the state, not the city.

"We can't continue to subsidize those cuts the state is making," Lea said.

Caldwell said the loss of $60,000 would cost his office an attorney, reducing his staff of prosecutors from 13 to 12. It also would mean losing a secretary position, and his office would not be able to prosecute as many misdemeanor cases. "Basically we'll have to cut about 10 percent of our workload."

Caldwell said he's argued that there are other positions within the city that are duplicative, such as public information officers or legal interns for Roanoke Circuit Court, that the city should consider eliminating before it cuts funding for a prosecuting attorney.

Staff writers Amanda Codispoti and Mike Allen contributed to this report.