New action plan spells out conquering city's Y2K bugs

By Steve Enders

The prospect of disaster this December 31 when the clock strikes midnight has been causing City Council members to press city staff to get on the ball with assessing and replacing any Y2K plagued computer systems.

At the urging of Evan Baker and other councilmembers, City Manager Larry Perlin has assembled a Y2K task force inside City Hall, consisting of various department heads and technology coordinators. They'll meet regularly and follow a newly drafted action plan to tackle whatever problems might arise in the coming months.

Additionally, the city may follow other cities' leads in providing information in conjunction with various public agencies, utilities companies and emergency services. The city may hold a town hall forum with those agencies this summer to let the public ask questions, and hopefully quell any undue fears.

No date has been set yet, but the idea was included in the action plan and was received favorably at a March 23 City Council meeting.

Earlier this month, the council set aside $25,000 to seek solutions to potential problems from Y2K bugs in the city's computer systems. The money will also go toward purchasing needed equipment and software.

Many of the software upgrades are being provided free of charge by the various manufacturers including Microsoft, the system running most of the city's computers.

Mary Jo Walker, director of Administrative Services is heading the project, which will test, upgrade or replace all of the software and the city's personal computers and network servers.

Of greatest concern to the city was the performance of its largest server, an IBM AS 400, which handles the city's entire financial and payroll systems. According to Walker, she's received word from IBM that the server and the software on it are all Y2K compliant. The city's other servers will be inventoried by the end of April.

At a meeting last month, councilmembers grew frustrated that this relatively new equipment would have come without assurances that it was compliant.

The problem originates from years ago, when programmers trying to save space on their systems began eliminating the "19" in years programmed on those machines and into software. Many programmers didn't think those old systems would still be used today, so the problem was never changed.

Some fear that many of those computers will think that the date is 1900 instead of 2000. Although there's no consensus on what will happen, some think the flaw could be disastrous.

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