CAMARILLO : Clean-Air Program Begins in October

Starting in October, public employees in Camarillo will be eligible to get paid for walking, car-pooling or bicycling to work under a new program designed to improve air quality in Ventura County.

The City Council has set aside $40,000 for the county-mandated program, which will pay workers $2 a day if they take alternative means of transportation to work three days a week, Asst. City Manager Larry Davis said.

“Of course if the state takes away all our money, we will have to go back and revisit that,” Davis said.

The incentive rises to $3 a day for those participating four days a week, and $4 a day for five days a week, he said.

Every major employer in the county is required by the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District to start an incentive program to reduce the number of workers driving alone to work, city officials said.

All of Camarillo’s 100 employees are expected to participate in the incentive program. “We need to reduce the number of trips coming to city offices by 90 per week,” Davis said. “If every employee would do it at least once a week, we would reach our goal.”

Between 1983 and 1990, Ventura County exceeded the federal ozone standard by an average of 39 days per year, and exceeded the more stringent state standard an average of 117 days per year, officials said.

Ozone, the major component of smog, is an invisible odorless gas that is produced through chemical reactions.