Ride-Share Ruling Exempts 90 Schools

About 90 schools that had been subject to employee trip-reduction requirements under the county’s Rule 210 were exempted from the regulation Tuesday.

Before the revision, a school was required to have employee ride-sharing incentives if employees at that school, together with employees at any other schools within a one-mile radius, totaled 100 or more people.

School employees found it difficult to coordinate with teachers at nearby schools because schedules are staggered to accommodate bus transportation, said Air Pollution Control Officer Richard Baldwin.

However, schools such as Mound Elementary School and Balboa Middle School in Ventura, which share a campus and have more than 100 employees combined, must still comply with the regulation requiring employees to share rides to work or find other alternate means of transportation.

Ventura County supervisors exempted schools in all of the county’s 22 districts that do not have more than 100 employees at a single location.

Gary Lunter, an attorney for the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme, called the action discriminatory and contended that the same exception should apply to the Navy base.

He said the Navy has separate functions at several locations on the large base and each should be considered separately.

But Baldwin reminded the board that the California Clean Air Act and the federal Clean Air Act require a reduction in the amount of times that employees drive their cars to work alone.