More detail on timing of upcoming government "Community Conversations"greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
Y2K Czar Pushes 'Community Conversations'Identifying the nation's smaller communities and local governments as potentially the weakest links in the chain of Year 2000 awareness, President Clinton's Year 2000 czar, John Koskinen, is ready to release a World Wide Web toolkit of best practices for communities to use as they near the millennial date change.
In early June, officials from the White House's Year 2000 office will begin traveling to communities to promote town hall-like meetings to convene local officials, citizens and service providers for discussions on potential Year 2000 failures.
STORY AT:
http://www.civic.com/pubs/1999/may/civ-newsfeed-5-3-99.html
:)
-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 07, 1999
Anybody else see the lack of coincidence here in the June date and the reference in the previous thread that mentioned June for the contingency plans??C
-- chuck, a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), May 07, 1999.
Here is a few snips of John Koskinen and his "Full Monty"
Koskinen: My world. And we think that's important information for people to have. We're not going to be able to do that across the country company by company. So what we hope to do with the working relationship we have with the major industry groups is get them to encourage all of their members to participate at the local level in these conversations, to get all of the elected public officials to talk not only about what they're doing with public safety and all of the other services they provide, but to in fact provide forums where instead of everybody in the country having to call their telephone company there'll be places to go to get information in some detail about how they're doing and when they're going to be done.
Koskinen
We've got a website and hotline where we're putting out information, and we're also going to run these programs this summer, where we're going to try to get every major industry association and their members to participate in these discussions. And it won't just be, okay, here's a report; we want real discussions where people can ask their bank or their power company, "Okay, what's your plan look like? What problems did you have? How much money did you budget, and how much have you spent?"http://www.csb.gov/ y2k/y2k01.pdf
Snip
Finally, regulated facilities must also
compile a risk management plan (RMPlan) which consists of a
description of the facilitys RMProgram (i.e., the hazard
assessment, the prevention program, and the emergency response
program). The regulation also requires that the RMPlan be
submitted to the EPA no later than June 21, 1999. EPA plans to
make the RMPlan available to the public.Snip
Another important consideration is that the RMPlans will be
available in June 1999 when the general awareness about Y2K
will be significantly elevated. It is quite likely that these two
issues will be linked for facilities regulated through the
RMProgram. Facilities should therefore expect public queries
regarding their Y2K readiness.The federal strategy is to provide the public with candid
information and assessments of Y2K compliance status 4 .4 John Koskinen, Chair of the Presidents Council on the Year 2000 Conversion, Opening remarks at the Y2K Expert Workshop
held in Washington, DC on December 18, 1998.
The Presidents Council on Year 2000 Conversion
Second Summary of Assessment Information
Finally, the Council will launch an initiative
this summer to increase Y2K information
sharing at the local level, where many of the
everyday services people rely upon such as
power and water treatment are provided. The
goal of the initiative is to have local
government officials and service providers
hold "community conversations" with
constituents and customers to explain the range
of their organization's Y2K activities and the
outlook for continuity of local services during
the Y2K transition. This information,< /font>
combined with national assessments, will give
citizens a more complete picture of what
challenges the Y2K problem may pose to their
communities and serve as the basis for local
preparedness planning.
-- Brian (imager@somewherelikehome.com), May 07, 1999.
The reference to the "Risk Management Plans" is a very limited regulatory situation applying only to major chemical industrial facilities that store very large amounts of 139 specific chemicals. Section 112(r) of the Federal Clean Air Act requires that those companies file a Risk Management Plan with EPA by 6/21/99 dealing with the potential for accidental chemical releases. EPA's regulations establishing the contents of the plan were adopted 3 years ago. However, since so few companies had yet submitted a plan, and since Y2K was looming, EPA issued an alert late last year requiring that a Y2K contingency plan be folded into the RMPlan. The RMPlans must be electronically submitted to EPA and then made available (I don't know how yet) for public review.
-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 07, 1999.