‘Telecommuting’ Plan to Cut Smog Urged by Mayor

In an attempt to cut down on traffic congestion and smog, Mayor Tom Bradley proposed Thursday that as many as 500 city employees work at home one or two days a week.

“Telecommuting is the wave of the future,” Bradley said as he announced a pilot program with its own futuristic buzzword.

If approved by the City Council, the program would permit 500 city employees in designated jobs to volunteer to work at home, typically for one or two days a week for 18 months while city officials evaluate the plan.

The program will pay off in improved employee morale and productivity, Bradley said at a press conference. “And they don’t have to get up and worry about how they’re dressed,” he added.

The pilot program, developed for the city by a consulting firm, is an attempt to comply with a Southern California Air Quality Management District regulation requiring medium to large employers to act quickly to reduce commuting by their employees.

“Telecommuting” programs in place in private industry, as well as the state of California, have raised productivity as much as 20%, decreased turnover rates and conserved on space and energy, according to a report by the consulting firm released Thursday.

The report recommended that 250 city employees be chosen to test the program, but Bradley doubled the figure in his proposal to the City Council. “It’s an opportunity for doing business in the 21st Century,” Bradley said.

6,000 Are Eligible

About 6,000 of the city’s 38,000 employees, generally “information workers” in 18 city departments, are eligible to volunteer. They might be accountants, managers, engineers, programmers or lawyers, for example, who can go over reports at home or conduct their business by telephone or computer.

Eventually, three satellite centers would be set up around the city from which telecommuting employees could work, according to the plan.

Jack M. Nilles, the consultant who helped draft the plan, said Thursday that managers in city departments will have to judge telecommuting employees by “results,” instead of “whether they’re in the office during the right hours.”