GOVERNMENT AGENCIES GRAPPLE WITH Y2K COMPLIANCE; WILL IT BE DOOMSDAY OR JUST ANOTHER ANNOYING DAY

With all the stories relating to the Y2K computer glitch, one might think that Jan. 1, 2000, will mean doomsday. But local government agencies say they are going to be year 2000 compliant. But does that mean area residents won't be affected by the computer glitch?

Only if you have absolutely no ties to the outside world and are totally independent of society.

But that would mean that everyone will be affected in some way if the problem isn't fixed around the globe. But don't panic, yet. Computer systems will still work until Dec. 31, 1999, and then no one really knows for sure what will happen. But it may not be as bad as those doomsday predictions that seem to be everywhere today.

The city of Jackson, Jackson Police Department, Jackson R-2 School District, Cape Girardeau County Data Processing and Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department all say that their computer systems are 2000 compliant or will be long before we ring in the new century in 18 months.

Dean Crites, data processing manager for the city of Jackson, said, "At this point we don't have anything 2000 compliant."

But he's installing a new operating system this weekend. Crites said new meter reading software that is 2000 compliant will be online by the fourth quarter of this year.

The last area to be made 2000 compliant by the city of Jackson will be the utility billing software, which is planned to be online by the first quarter of 1999, Crites said.

The cost of fixing the bug was rather low. The city will pay a little under $5,200 to fix the glitch. Crites said that the new meter reading program was obtained at no additional cost to the city, while the other programs dealing with budgeting, accounting, payroll and utility billing cost about $5,000. IBM also charged the city $195 for tapes and books addressing the problem, but the actual updating was at no additional cost.

The Jackson Police Department isn't expecting any problems from their system when Jan. 1, 2000, rolls around.

"I'm comfortable that we should be okay with it," Police Chief Marvin Sides said.

Ron Andrews, director of data processing for Cape Girardeau County, said no major revisions will be needed and the county's system has had the proper software for 15 years.

"We're in good shape," Andrews said.

The Jackson R-2 School District computer network is 2000 compliant, Terry Gibbons, assistant superintendent of schools, said. "Our systems are fine," he said.

Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department said, "We are compliant with the year 2000."

What's the state doing?

At the state level, Mike Benzen, chief information officer for Missouri state government, said that all data systems will be Y2K compliant and back in production by April 1999.

Benzen said it is possible that something might not be done, and he added that while there will be problems on Jan. 1, 2000, he doesn't believe it will be anything like what the "doom sayers" are forecasting.

The cost of the total project at the state level will be $75 million, which accounts for the $56.7 million dollar Legislature appropriation for the Y2K problem and an additional in-house expenditure of approximately $18 million, Benzen said.

The state has been working on the problem for two years and has so far spent about half of the appropriation to make all data systems and embedded chips Y2K compliant, Benzen said.

He said that 300 people are working on the project. Anderson Consulting is the contractor on the project and they have 150 people working on updating the systems. The state has another 150 employees working to keep the computers computing into the next century.

Benzen said that fixing the problem itself isn't a difficult task, but the shear numbers of systems that have to be identified and fixed makes it a laborious task.

"We know what it takes and it ain't a big deal," he said. "But the world underestimated the quantity of dates out there and underestimated how many times a date is used in programs."

As the problem is dealt with it becomes less and less of a problem, but private businesses and other institutions that choose to ignore the problem will be in for a rough road.

But Benzen said his biggest task ahead of him is to build public confidence. He's alarmed by what he's seeing on the Internet and some infomercials he's seen that forecast the failure of the world banking system.

"You can get enough kooks with bad information and you could create a problem that might not have happened otherwise," Benzen said.

He said that a banking crisis could occur because of the hype that this problem is a countdown to doomsday. He said people are already encouraging people to take their money out of the bank and buy gold because they believe the banking systems will fail everywhere.

So building public confidence in what the government is doing to counteract the Y2K glitch, at a time when cynicism is possibly at an all-time high across America, may be Benzen's toughest task.

To help people keep track of the state's progress on the Y2K compliance the office of information technology has placed graphs and information tracking their progress month by month since December 1997. You can reach this page on the Internet at www.oit.state.mo.us/index.shtml.

The site will include more information in the future but you can see progress through May 1998 and a total of 27.74 percent of data systems are Y2K compliant and back in production. Another 46.79 percent of state government data systems are Y2K compliant as of May and those systems are just waiting to go back into production.

Another potential problem is traffic lights that run on embedded chips. Some chips aren't Y2K compliant. Missouri Department of Transportation did a survey, Benzen said, that identified a small number of traffic lights that weren't Y2K compliant. He said the forecast is for a 1 to 2 percent failure rate for state owned traffic lights.

Other embedded chip systems that run environmental control devices for buildings could be thrown off their schedule if they aren't Y2K compliant, but Benzen said that while a few will fail he has only identified one building in Jefferson City that isn't Y2K compliant.

"There will be problems, but civilization won't be stopped in its tracks," Benzen said.

Computers that aren't Y2K compliant will churn out bad data and everyone needs to deal with the problem to minimize it.

The glitch is also a problem at the national level and many problems could occur that will affect people locally if all government data systems aren't updated before Jan. 1, 2000.

Missouri Year 2000 Progress Update

as of May 1998

Agency Effort Completed %of Statewide Effort Programs back in production

Dept. of Labor & Industrial Relations 64.9% 18.7% 50.9%

Dept. of Revenue 70% 4.92% 70%

Dept. of Health 27% 6.12% 20%

Dept. of Mental Health 88% 2.05% 88%

Dept. of Social Services 33.89% 25.38% 1.4%

Dept. of Social Services MMIS 83% 6.95% 55.3%

Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education 58% 5.84% 53%

Dept. of Higher Education 20% 0.75% 0%

State Highway Patrol 20% 17.14% 0%

Dept. of Corrections 5% 0.48% 0%

Dept. of Economic Development 77% 3.69% 45%

Dept. of Insurance 5% 0.66% 0%

Office of Administration 55% 5.14% 48%

Dept. of Transportation 75% 0.44% 75%

Dept. of Natural Resources 21% 1.75% 0%

Statewide totals 46.79% 100% 27.74%

Source: Missouri State Government Web Y2K Progress Update

Days to Jan. 1, 2000: 538