Free Day Off : One Ventura County company is offering some attractive enticements to workers who leave their cars at home.

As I was calling around the county to see how businesses were gearing up to comply with “Rule 210,” the county’s anti-smog and anti-congestion mandate, I came tantalizingly close to discovering that there is such a thing as a free lunch. The hitch is, you have to join a car-pool.

The free lunch is the potential payoff for employees at the Gibraltar Savings facility (now under the supervision of the Resolution Trust) in Simi Valley. In order to meet new Ventura County environmental guidelines--which enter a stricter phase this summer and an even stricter phase after Christmas--the management is offering what I call “deals on wheels.” These are 50% discounts at the company cafeteria for each time folks ride-share or car-pool to work.

Stara Sack, who in charge of this program at the facility, paused when I asked if that meant that two notches on your ride-share ticket meant lunch was free. “Technically,” she said, and then went on to unveil the really big enticement. At least to me it was big. A day off work.

“For those who ride-share at least three times a week in the course of a month, you get into a drawing where the prize is a day off.” The company is already subsidizing a small van-pool fleet for employees, and plans to subsidize bicycling for those so inclined. The point is to cut smog by cutting down on people commuting alone.

Sack is a practitioner of a new trade; she is a “transportation coordinator.” It might sound like a cross between a cruise ship social director and a motor-pool dispatcher, but this is a serious new breed of professional.

One reason it is serious, in addition to the big matter of uncluttering our air and roads, is that Ventura County will fine companies $25,000 a day if workers don’t cut down on driving to work alone.

“This job is fun. I enjoy the challenge,” said Milt Goldstein, a transportation coordinator with the 450 employees of Bugle Boys in Simi Valley. He has gotten 175 of them into ride-sharing and is working to add 60 more, with cash incentives of a dollar a day and preferred parking for car-poolers--plus, a “guaranteed ride home” program.

“That would be about 150 less trips a week,” Goldstein said. “Right now that’s not much of an incentive for the $100,000-a-year types. You have to put the guilt to them.”

A local business person on the supply side of “Rule 210”is Chap Morris Jr., who works at a General Motors dealership in Moorpark. Morris wanted to find a way to provide van-pool service that area businesses could, in turn, offer their employees. The Chrysler Corp. has been doing this--profitably--for a decade in parts of California, including Ventura County where the service is known as VPSI Commuter Vanpools.

It was frustrating for Morris. “I had to turn over quite a few rocks in Detroit.” He finally found a woman who knew how GM could help dealers “out in the boonies” develop a van-pool leasing program using GM products.

Angela Dukes, transportation programs administrator for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, supports anything that gets people to work without “car trips.” Her motto is “Moving People Not Vehicles.”

She operates a hot line where individuals and employers can get information on existing programs and make known their needs. Specifically, employers can check out the status regarding the implementation of “Rule 210,” which mandates trip reductions for firms with 75 to 99 employees beginning about six weeks from now. After Christmas it goes down to 50 to 74 employees. I am also listing the numbers of a ride-share, matchup service and the local bus service.

If you are a driver whose employer is too small to be immediately affected by Rule 210--that is to say, you are not going to be able to parlay ride-sharing into a free lunch--well, Rev. Goldstein and Rev. Kahlenberg are just going to have to treat you like those rich folks at Bugle Boy. We’re going to put a little guilt to you. Ride-share or take the bus, hear? Go thee and drive alone to work no more.

* FYI

* Ventura County Air Pollution Control District--Information hot line, 654-5033 (Angela Dukes)

* County of Ventura--Trip reduction information and SCAT bus information, 654-3600 (Jim Pickins)

* For ride-share matchups, call Commuter Computer at 656-2477 (Tricia Price)

* VPSI Commuter Vanpool, (800) 448-8774 (Sandra Boyle)

* Executive Transportation Network, 524-0333 (Chap Morris Jr.)

* If you are interested in the new profession of transportation coordinator, there is a certification program at UCLA (213 825-7885 MaBel C. Collins).