At Warner Center : Businesses Get City Funds to Boost Car Pools

Over objections that it was subsidizing private business, the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday authorized $57,600 to hire a ride-sharing coordinator to encourage car-pooling among employees at Warner Center.

The money will go to the Warner Center Assn., a group of major employers in the West Valley center, for hiring a full-time coordinator to arrange car pools for the center’s 35,000 employees.

A similar program was recently begun in Century City.

The funds, which were requested by the association, come from a half-cent sales tax increase approved by county voters in 1980 to finance transportation improvements.

Several large firms in Warner Center employ ride-sharing coordinators to match their own employees in car pools, said Norman Emerson, a representative of the Voit Cos., a major Warner Center development company.

Broader Matching Needed

Nevertheless, Emerson said, a single coordinator is needed to bring together employees from different companies, especially the smaller ones, into car pools.

Council members Ernani Bernardi, Dave Cunningham and Joan Milke Flores objected to the expenditure. But only Bernardi, who represents the mid-Valley, voted against it. Cunningham and Flores said they voted for it as a courtesy to Councilwoman Joy Picus, who asked for the money and whose district includes Warner Center.

Flores earlier questioned why the city should provide money to Warner Center’s companies to establish a ride-sharing program when other firms, such as Atlantic Richfield Co., fund such programs out of their own budgets.

“Why can’t these companies finance this just as ARCO is doing theirs?” Flores asked.

Bernardi, who is often critical of government spending, complained that the city shouldn’t be subsidizing big business when it doesn’t have enough money to fix potholes in the streets.

“I think it’s just a bad use of public funds,” he said.

Picus contended that the expenditure would benefit the entire city.

“This gives us the opportunity to do something about the traffic congestion before it becomes a crisis,” she said. She said the Warner Center program would test whether active encouragement of ride-sharing can reduce traffic congestion.

“Ride-sharing was one of the factors that made a difference during the Olympics,” said Councilwoman Pat Russell, chairwoman of the council’s transportation committee, which had recommended approval of the expenditure.

Anyone in Los Angeles County can call Commuter Computer to arrange a car pool, but Warner Center needs a full-time coordinator to encourage car-pooling by employees, said James McLaughlin, a staff member of the city Department of Transportation.