1st of California State Senate/Assembly Joint Hearings Oversight Hearing on Year 2000 Preparedness Wednesday, February 24, 1999 State Capitol, Room 4202

(I attended this Hearing and these are my personal observations, Kiri. I will also be attending the next one on March 22. If these observations were interesting, I will have the same for #2.)

Richard Hall from Intel presented first. He gave an overview on the Y2K issue. He stressed 3 points.

1) Asia and its impact on the world economy, especially the technological field. He discussed the impact of an Asia without electricity and other infrastructure necessary to manufacture and export goods.

2) Electricity and the impact of disrupted service to California and the World.

3) Panic. He discussed the possibility of self-fulfilling prophecies if information isn't offered in a timely and responsible manner.

He also offered 3 suggestions to the Committee to help remediate our predicament.

1) Support Governor Davis in his Executive Order D-3-99 concerning the dedicated effort of DOIT to bring California's state agencies compliant before January 1, 2000. 2) Confirm the compliance of all electrical utilities. 3) Educate California's public in a timely manner so we can make calm, informed decisions about preparations.

Assemblymember Dutra made comments about the utility situation based on NERC's latest reports and on what the PUC is telling them. The ole don't worry, we're working on it platitudes.

Assemblymember Alquist from the Silicon Valley stated that she thinks that Y2k isn't only an economic issue but is a people problem. She then asked Hall what his corporation was willing to do to encourage communities to become self-reliant. Hall admitted that Intel is currently only active in discussing this issue internally with their employees. He also admitted that Intel feels they have to be careful about how they can advice their employees without alarming them.

Alquist also mentioned the unreliability of self-reporting on the part of corporations. Hall admitted that Intel's information was a function of their own self-reporting and auditing.

Ducheny from San Diego asked about the status of Latin America in all of this because when California had its last downturn of commerce from Asia, California made up for the short-fall by increasing trade with Latin America. Hall could only reference the Gardner Report for this information.

Senator Vasconcellos insisted that DOIT, State Auditor, Governor Davis' Staff Representative, and OES all come up to the podium at once so they could be questioned all together.

First up was Elias Cortez. As you can imagine he was grilled. I could write a book about what was said but it all boils down to Wilson's crew didn't deliver. Cortez has inherited this MESS. He really didn't have definitive figures to give to the Hearing members so guess who's going to be back in 2 to 3 weeks supposedly with 55 completed IV&V's. The Committee members were concerned most about DMV, Social Services/Welfare and the Corrections Departments. Especially concerning were questions about the embedded chips in the Correctional facilities.

Next was Kurt Sjoberg, State Auditor. We all know about the State Auditor's Report. What I didn't understand was the attack by Senator Peace from El Cajon on Mr. Sjoberg for his reporting on the ISO. I admit I am woefully uninformed about this term but the Senator accused Sjoberg of being an alarmist about this system that has something to do with the state's internal electrical grid. The Senator said the ISO was totally and completely Year 2000 compliant. Maybe someone can enlighten us about this attack.

After Sjoberg was through gracefully accepting Senator Peace's attack, Sjoberg agreed to work with Cortez to help him make some sense out of the mess that he has to deal with. Senator Vasconcellos suggested that DOIT give an updated Y2K status report on the TV every 30 days. We'll see how that one flies.

Next was Mr. Lima (sp.) from the Governer's Staff on Y2K. The Corrections Department embedded chip problem was addressed again by Ducheny. Lima offered a 4-5 day update on their status. Senator Bowen asked if the school, fire and other special districts in the state have been assessed on their compliance and no one had a definitive answer on that one. Alquist reminded the panel that 1 1/2 years ago this request was first asked and never was addressed. Then Senator Vasconcellos asked about all the different nuclear facilities around the state and who in the state was policing their compliance. The only facility discussed was the UC testing facilities.

Next was Dallas Jones, Director of the Office of Emergency Services. He had a long prepared speech that was promptly interrupted by Alquist who wanted to get right to the heart of the matter. Were all the helicopters needed for services compliant? Did all the firefighters and police agencies have access to all the resources they needed? Jones beat around the bush about these questions. Finally he admitted that he would do a comprehensive survey of all those agencies under his jurisdiction to answer Alquist's questions. This survey is supposed to be submitted in 2 months.

Senator Vasconcellos asked if the OES was coordinating with the citizen community groups and Jones said yes. He sighted working with a group addressing challenged individuals. Has Jones contacted your Community Group? He hasn't contacted ours.

Last thing mentioned was a conference in March with those on the podium to go over all this data again.

The last groups to be represented were the Citizens Groups.

Now I was disgusted at the exodus of the audience, including the local media before these people presented. I was also appalled at the short time allotted these people. 3 people were given almost 30 minutes. They did surprisingly well for the time given them.

Bob Burnett, co-founder of Cisco Systems discussed 4 points. 1) California cities being without power for more than 72 hours. He mentioned that the last three PG&E releases to the PUC were stamped confidential therefore making them unavailable to the public. He also called for all the Utility providers in the state to be questioned at a future hearing. 2) What is/will be done about dealing with hazardous material spills in the event of containment failure. 3) Human costs mainly in terms of food and water. He cited the American Red Cross suggestion of 7 days of supplies. He made a plea for the poor and indigent asking the state to assure them of emergency facilities for everyone who needs them. 4) State economy- specifically the dependence of the technical sector on the Pacific Rim manufacturers for parts. He asked for state economic reform change in the taxation system in regards to different inventory levels so manufacturers could hedge their bets on supplies and finished goods.

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute stressed the major importance of community cohesiveness in this time of uncertainty. He stated there were more than 200 groups organized already to deal with Y2K. He cited the Portland and Kauai groups as role models for the Committee to investigate and encourage in the state. Senator Vasconcellos questioned Atlee on how many groups were in California but Atlee didn't have those figures.

Atlee stressed the need to move our schools and large public buildings into the solar power arena to make them less dependent on the grid.

Atlee also stressed the need to inform the public that they need to begin preparations now so they can buy in small, manageable quantities. He warned against shortages in the Fall and Winter because producers and distributors could lag for lack of information.

Jon Roland, Year 2000 consultant, cited 35 years of programming experience. He stressed 3 interesting points in regards to contingency planning. 1) Provide legal authority to those in charge of neighborhood groups. I was a little confused about what he was trying to explain. He needed more time for this point. 2) He suggested the state could use the old Civil Defense plans of preparation and contingency as a starting point. Again more time would have allowed more explanation. (Does anyone know anything about the Civil Defense plans?) 3) He suggested a point to point emergency communications system using some type of handheld computer/transceiver for the entire U.S. He called it a wireless Internet. Then he mentioned something about the Ricochet system in San Jose. Then he was cut off.

The Hearing was ended on the note that they would all meet back there again to discuss meaningful data in 2 to 3 weeks.

-- kiri jay (kirijay@pacbell.net), March 10, 1999