County Cited for Missing Deadline on Plan to Reduce Worker Travel

Air pollution officials cited Los Angeles County on Tuesday for failing to meet a deadline for implementing a plan to reduce worker travel but encouraged the county to begin charging employees to park downtown.

A South Coast Air Quality Management District inspector served the county with a “notice of violation” warning that it faces fines of up to $25,000 a day for missing a Sept. 17 deadline for implementing a traffic-reduction plan. The fines will grow until a plan is submitted by the county and approved by the district, an AQMD spokesman said.

The Board of Supervisors on Sept. 18 voted to begin charging 8,000 Civic Center workers $70 to $225 a month to park in spaces now provided free. The parking fees, designed to discourage employees from commuting to work alone, are in response to an AQMD directive for major employers to reduce worker travel and, in turn, smog and traffic congestion.

The parking fees are due to begin Monday. But in a letter to the county’s chief administrative officer, AQMD Executive Director James Lents complained that a $70-a-month transportation allowance the county will give to employees will not be included in paychecks until Nov. 15.

The AQMD considers that to be the implementation date and, by that reckoning, the county will miss the deadline by two months. The county was first notified in December, 1988, that it must come up with a plan.

No decision has been made on assessing fines. “We’re reviewing our legal options,” Eichhorn said.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called the AQMD act “an outrage.” He attributed delays to legal requirements for the supervisors to negotiate the traffic-reduction plan with county labor unions.