State to Hold Meeting on the Year 2000 Predicament

Ask John Flynn, the state’s chief information officer, what mischief the year 2000 computer problem might cause in state computer networks and he begins by taking a deep breath.

“Beneficiaries may not receive welfare checks,” he says, “prisoners may become [prematurely] eligible for parole, every elevator in the state could stop functioning, 911 systems might fail . . . “

And the list goes on.

So Flynn and other government officials from throughout the state are planning to convene in Sacramento on Thursday for the state’s first intergovernmental conference on the year 2000 problem.

Most city, county and state officials have already spent the last few years working on solving the problem, which involves some computer programs’ inability to recognize dates beyond Dec. 31, 1999.

But even if individual agencies fix their problems internally, many government computer systems are interconnected. Welfare data, for example, are passed from the county to the state to the federal governments. One thing Flynn hopes to accomplish Thursday is the establishment of standards so that repairs are compatible across different systems.

Some county officials say it’s about time.

“We know the state is doing repair work, but they haven’t told the counties what format they want to see dates in,” said Jon Fullinwider, chief information officer for Los Angeles County.

As a result, some repairs already made by the county might have to be redone to make them compatible with state standards, he said.

Of the 70,000 computer programs used in Los Angeles County systems, roughly 30,000 are affected by the year 2000 problem. Fullinwider said the repair work is about 33% done, with the rest to be completed by December.

Flynn and Fullinwider both said they believe the problem won’t threaten public safety but could cause inconveniences and delays in some government services.

About 500 people are scheduled to attend the conference.