County May Pay Bonuses to Car-Pooling Workers : Clean air: The proposed $300 yearly incentives could be a model for private companies that must find ways to encourage ride-sharing.

Ventura County officials may dangle a $300 carrot in front of county workers to entice them into leaving their cars at home when they go to work.

All that the employees would have to do is car-pool, ride a bus, bicycle or walk to work an average of three days a week for 48 weeks. By Christmas, 1991, they would receive a check for $300.

The County Board of Supervisors will consider the cash incentive program Tuesday. If it is approved, the program will kick off just before Thanksgiving, and the city would join a small but growing number of private companies and public agencies that are beginning to offer incentives for employees to find ways to get to work other than driving alone.

A cash incentive is one of the strategies in the county’s plan for cutting air pollution by reducing the number of cars the county’s 6,000 employees drive to work. The plan could be a prototype for private companies with 100 or more employees, which must come up with their own proposals in the next few months.

The plans are being adopted to help the county comply with state and federal clean air laws. The county is under a federal court order to clean up its air, which ranks sixth worst in the nation for ozone pollution.

The proposal to hand out cash incentives comes at a time when the county is strapped for money because of state funding cuts. Yet county officials say the program is worthwhile.

“A massive effort is needed to clean up the air,” said Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrative officer.

Simply asking people to leave their cars at home isn’t enough, he said. However, the county is choosing the carrot approach over the stick, he said. “This is the best way even in tight budget times.”

The program is designed along the lines of the county’s wellness program, which attracted about 2,000 employees who earned $200 or $300 for improving their health. The county hopes that a similar number will elect cash over their cars. If so, the county is prepared to shell out about $500,000 a year in cash incentives.

The top prize is $300 for those employees who leave their cars at home an average of three days a week, but $200 would be given to those who average at least two days a week.

The program depends on the honor system, said Marty Shaw-Halloway, the county’s manager of special projects. Employees must sign a statement acknowledging that they will be disciplined if they falsify information about their car-pooling efforts. Car-pool drivers and riders must keep daily records of their ride-sharing efforts, and the quarterly reports must be signed by a supervisor.

As of last March, there were 47 registered car-pools carrying 109 county employees to work, county records show. Commuting county employees average 1.2 people per car--a number the county must raise to 1.35 under Rule 210, the plan the county adopted requiring large employers to devise ways to reduce the number of commuting cars on the road.

Ventura County may need to be creative when it comes to getting people out of their cars. Other communities, such as Los Angeles, have more smog, more traffic congestion, tighter parking restrictions and a larger public transit system--all strong, visible incentives to car-pool, Shaw-Halloway said.

“Things that push people in Los Angeles and Orange County into car-pooling aren’t here,” she said. “We’re asking people to make a lifestyle change,” she said.

Shaw-Halloway said a number of private companies in the county are beginning to offer incentives to car-pool. Some provide vans or free parking. Some use a point system and reward ride-sharing with gifts, while others might offer a drawing for prizes.

She knew of no company in the county offering a straight cash incentive such as the one the county is considering.

However, such incentives are not that unusual in the Los Angeles area, said Paula Levy, spokeswoman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

She said her own agency, which has 1,000 employees, offers workers $60 a month if they use the bus, bicycle, walk or van-pool to work. Those who car-pool get as much as $55 a month.