Davis’ Y2K Program Criticized by Legislators

California’s readiness for the possible Y2K computer glitch is still fraught with uncertainty, despite administration assurances that everything will be fine by year’s end.

Legislators upbraided Gov. Gray Davis’ task force this week, accusing it of being too complacent with laggard agencies, exceeding its authority, spending money unnecessarily and issuing incomplete or misleading status reports.

“We are 195 days away, and it sounds like it did a year ago,” state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) complained to the governor’s team in a public hearing Monday evening. “We are still waiting for things to happen.”

Lawmakers said they will step up their oversight of the state’s progress, perhaps holding weekly hearings to track the meticulous testing of a massive inventory of computers that operate everything from water channels and prison security to traffic controls and vital record keeping.

Experts have warned that computers worldwide could fail next year if they are unable to recognize “00” as the two-digit date referring to the year 2000.

At the least, California authorities are working to assure that all of the state’s “mission critical” services--those needed to preserve public health and safety--are protected.

That does not mean all of the critical computers will function, however. In some cases, authorities say, they are now focusing on backup systems for those critical services.

The Department of Corrections, for example, has an internal telephone system that is not scheduled to be ready until December. Authorities say that prison guards may have to communicate through an external public telephone carrier, or each prison will need to be supplied with cellular telephones.

“The only thing I can assure is that we will have a business continuity plan in place to assure the delivery of services,” said Elias Cortez, director of the Davis team in the state Department of Information Technology. “Can we guarantee there won’t be glitches? I don’t think anybody in the industry can.”

The state has spent more than $400 million to test and repair computers to handle the chronological transition. But in one sign of the confusion, officials cannot tell whether the ultimate price for repair will approach $500 million or perhaps double that amount.

Legislators said they were encouraged earlier this year when Davis made Y2K repairs a priority for his administration. The governor ordered every department to abandon other computer work, and he assigned a team of industry and government experts to attack the problem.

But lawmakers said their confidence dropped after the Davis team issued a recent status report.

“I’m not certain this is going to get done,” Assemblyman John Dutra (D-Fremont) said after hearing the administration’s report. “It’s alarming. . . . I’d like significantly more assurance.”

The report covered only five of the state’s 116 departments, focusing first on the most critical. Confusing and admittedly outdated data in the report also caused lawmakers to question how some of the critical areas could be categorized as low risk.

Vasconcellos complained, for example, that the rating assigned to the Department of Transportation was dropped from high risk in April to low risk in May even though the same tasks were still listed as incomplete in each month.

Cortez blamed a paperwork error.

“It’s incredible,” Vasconcellos sighed. “It sure doesn’t instill any confidence that something is happening.”

Cortez also said in an interview that it will take at least one more month before his staff has even identified all of the critical computer systems in the state--let alone fixed them.

He and others have put much of the blame for slow progress on the administration of Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson signed an executive order in 1997 demanding that every critical computer system complete its Y2K repairs by last December, a deadline that was not met by a single state department.

Lawmakers questioned the necessity of a $17.5-million computer system the Davis team has ordered to expedite its Y2K testing. Experts testified that two other testing systems funded last year for the same purpose are operating at less than half of their capacities.

Legislators also questioned whether the equipment can be approved in the pending state budget, purchased, installed and operating in time to help with the state’s testing. And they worried that the pending budget made room for the new computer system by cutting other funds that were designated for Y2K repairs.

“I don’t understand,” said state Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey). “I think we are way under-budgeted on remediation and way over-budgeted on testing.”

Bowen also suggested that the Department of Information Technology was exceeding its authority by conducting tests itself when it is only authorized by the Legislature to monitor computer systems and recommend policy changes.