Officials Urge Increase in Car-Pooling Incentives : Pollution: Extra vacation days and prizes are mentioned as ways to lure more county workers into leaving their cars at home.

Even with the four-day workweek, Ventura County government may have to provide bonus vacation days or cash incentives to get more employees to car-pool or use some other alternative transportation so that the county can comply with federal air-pollution laws.

During a study session on the issue Tuesday, department managers told the Board of Supervisors that more incentives are needed to meet increasingly stringent federal mandates that call for reducing the number of vehicles on the road.

Peter S. Pedroff, director of the General Services Agency, and others suggested that extra vacation days, cash or prizes, such as a paid trip, might be good incentives to get more employees to leave their cars at home.

“That may not be the way to go,” Pedroff said. “That’s somewhat innovative and maybe off the scale. But I think we have to think in terms of those kinds of incentives for our employees.”

But Supervisor Judy Mikels expressed concern over the costs and extra workload for others that could result from providing such incentives.

“How do you manage that?” Mikels asked the department managers. “It does come out of your budget. It is, after all, money.”

The county implemented a four-day workweek for most departments in June, 1993, to comply with federal air pollution laws aimed at keeping cars off the road. About one-third of the county’s 6,000 employees participate in the program, working four 10-hour shifts, with Fridays off.

The shorter workweek has irked some residents, who want access to county services on Friday. But it has helped the county meet a federal requirement that calls for having 1.35 employees, on average, in each car commuting to the Government Center in Ventura. Federal law requires that the county increase that average to 1.5 passengers by 1997.

The county must submit a plan stating how it will reach that goal. Failure to achieve the standard could lead to fines.

County officials are now studying a number of options to reduce the number of vehicle trips to the government center.

Although the four-day workweek has proved to be the most effective way to accomplish this, opportunities to expand the alternative work schedule to more county departments and agencies are limited.

Special Assistant Dist. Atty. Donald D. Coleman, for example, told the supervisors Tuesday that county judges have declined to participate in the shorter workweek because of their heavy workload. As a result, Coleman’s office has one of the lowest levels of workers using car pools. The department’s average daily vehicle ridership is 1.12 people per car.

Coleman suggested providing bonus hours or days off for employees who car-pool to help the district attorney’s office comply with the federal mandate. He said he believed this would provide a strong incentive for employees, especially those with young children, to get extra time off.

“I know a lot of parents that would be happy to see that,” he said.

Other departments or agencies that do not participate in the four-day workweek include the sheriff’s department, the district attorney, public defender, coroner’s office and the county’s public hospital.

Meanwhile, Mikels and other supervisors have questioned whether the four-day workweek significantly reduces smog levels because most county employees still use their cars on their day off. Mikels has asked for staff to bring back more information to the board explaining the effect of the compressed workweek.

Ventura County Air Pollution Control Officer Richard H. Baldwin said that studies conducted in other areas that use the four-day workweek or other flexible work schedules as part of their anti-pollution strategy have shown that it does reduce smog levels. Baldwin, however, could not say how significant those reductions have been.

One major benefit of the shortened workweek, he said, is that it reduces the number of vehicles on the road during peak traffic hours--between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.--on Friday.

“When you improve traffic flow, you reduce emissions,” he said.

The supervisors will continue their study session at their meeting next Tuesday.