This e-mail was just sent around to the Coalition 2000 public e list from Steve Davis citing a letter from John Koskinen.

Diane

Subject: [c2000] FW: Local Gov't Officials Letter
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 15:37:50 -0400

I forwarding this message from John Koskinen. They moved quickly to finalize the letter we were working on. While a bit less than what we proposed, it still gives clear guidance to local and civic leaders.

A key part:

"Much has been accomplished in recent months on Y2K, but a great deal of work remains and failures are possible -- especially at the local level. Therefore, it is important to develop and discuss with citizens local Y2K contingency plans and other preparedness activities."

This letter, along with the tools and resources at the Coalition2000.org web site should provide everyone with what they need to get their locality motivated and started on Y2K preparedness. As you will read below, this is to be widely distributed.

I have asked John to include the great tools that we are listing on the Coalition site as part of a toolbox that is made available to these local leaders.

Steve Davis

http://www.davislogic.com/

http://www.coalition2000.org

-----Original Message-----
From: John_A._Koskinen
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 1999 12:42 PM
To: steve451@erols.com
Subject: Local Gov't Officials Letter

You'll probably get this from Leigh or others, but I wanted you to have the information quickly in light of all the time you've devoted to this question. To the extent that you discuss it with anyone, note that we're starting to send this letter out since it will obviously take a few days to get all the machinery up and running. But the national associations for towns and townships, counties and cities have all agreed to be supportive. The towns and townships folks, even though the only reasonable logistical choice in light of the numbers involved is to work with the state associations, will allow us to get at many of the leaders of communities most at risk.

Stay tuned.

---------------------- Forwarded by John A. Koskinen/WHO/EOP on 06/19/99 12:39 PM ---------------------------

JOHN A. KOSKINEN

------------- converted from Word document ---------------------------

Dear (Mayor) (County official) (local leader),

I am writing to (Mayors, County officials, local leaders) across the country to ask that you consider supporting an important new national initiative we have begun called Y2K Community Conversations, to encourage public dialogue about local readiness for the Year 2000 date change.

Y2K Community Conversations are designed to inform citizens about the efforts that are underway at the local level to address the challenges that the transition to the next century presents to our communities and to you as an elected official. It is critical that citizens know about the Y2K readiness of their respective communities.

As a leader in your community, one of the most important things you can do is help provide people with information about Y2K work locally that has been completed as well as the work in progress. Much has been accomplished in recent months on Y2K, but a great deal of work remains and failures are possible -- especially at the local level. Therefore, it is important to develop and discuss with citizens local Y2K contingency plans and other preparedness activities.

Y2K Community Conversations are locally driven events. They are designed to bring together service providers, public officials, business and religious leaders, civic organizations, grassroots groups, and others in an effort to share information, encourage discussion, and initiate follow-up actions.

To support and assist you, we have developed a free tool kit that includes a guidebook for planning Y2K Community Conversations, frequently asked questions, promotional material, and a videotaped introduction by President Clinton. The tool kit is available by calling 1-888-USA-4-Y2K. Toolkit materials can also be downloaded from the Presidents Council on Y2K Conversion web site at

http://www.y2k.gov/community

With less than 200 days until January 1, time is of the essence. Your commitment to this important initiative, whether you organize Y2K Community Conversations or simply participate in those being organized by others in the community, is critical to our nations ability to ensure a smooth transition to the new millennium.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

John A. Koskinen
Assistant to the President and Chair
Presidents Council on Year 2000 Conversion

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 19, 1999

Answers

See also...

Community Conversation in Frankfort, Kentucky on June 17, 1999--a report

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000yTU

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 19, 1999.

Diane;

Is this going to be a spin control operation or a real effort to get people to prepare? I went to the TOOLBOX and found some slick advice for running meetings and non such, but the FAQ basically said "No Problem" What gives, what is your read on this?

Keep the faith;

Helium

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), June 19, 1999.

"failures are possible....especially at the local levels". I'm sorry. Just what the hell IS that supposed to mean, anyway? How many *do not* live locally? Are you in your local location right now? What locale do you have friends and family in? Why heck...MY locale will be OK...but I wouldn't want to count on YOUR locale, then again, the government says there may be possible failures MOST especially at the local levels. How many local levels does this country have anyway? Is this man an attorney in government? Why , yes, he is....depending upon what your meaning of the word is is. We the government will be fine.....you locals may have big problems though. We'd ask them ourselves...but they won't tell us, so we want you to do it for us, in *JUNE 1999*. Would someone just hand me a rope and pick out a tree.......pretty please?

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 19, 1999.

Now Will, you know who isn't local -- those guys on MIR. Closing it down they are. So there! Not here. NIMBY, er, underground fortified military bunker, sez Kosky. Neener neener, and when all the Medicare/Medicaid/Welfare die-offs are burnt/eaten we'll have more $$ for War Games! Spin the Cull. Besides, locals won't be a problem -- Kosky said the pitchforks would take care of it right there on that local level. No lie. His exact words are in the archives. Pitchforks for the locals straight from his forked poisoned oiled lips.

xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 19, 1999.

Diane;

With out an answer from you, I will try to interperate this "Government Release"

"Hey all you local officials who want to ride on Bill's coat tails get in line! We need to quiet the heard. Talk to them, tell them that everything is under control. We are the government and we are here to help you. DO NOT STAMPEDE repeat Do Not Stampede.... There is no problem...We have every thing under control...."

Maybe I am way off base here, but this looks like total SPIN...

Depressed but hanging in there.

Helium

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), June 19, 1999.

Hey, Willcontinue, I have not seen you overreacting like this before.

While I must admit that it seems like same ol'same ol', I think what the man means by "especially at the local level" is "localized", as in the power may go off for a few days here and there, but not all over the place, as it would under some scenarios of one or two power companies bringing down a whole region, or the whole grid.

-- malcolm drake (jumpoff@echoweb.net), June 19, 1999.

Koskinen has figured out the ultimate way to avoid resposibility. If you say everything is "local" rather than "national", who could hold the fed. gov. responsible? He will say we were warned. He will say the U.S. was 100% ready but the damn foreign 'puters corrupted ours. He will say all this from a underground fed. gov. bunker....

-- Gia (Laureltree7@hotmail.com), June 20, 1999.

I know that's what he'd like us to think, malcolm. Water? supplies? food? gas shortages? phones? banks? violence? emergency response? explosions? toxic spills? medicine? hospitals? transportation? insurance? welfare? child support? tax returns? disability? social security? national security? unemployment? mail system? employment? public schools? natural gas? Nice of him to address the power grid aspect, with a vague "Russian Roulette" twist to it. I just have never been one to MOO!

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 20, 1999.

"With less than 200 days until January 1, time is of the essence."

Don't you think statements like that could induce panic?????

-- Nailbender (prepare@locallevel.grub), June 20, 1999.

Helium,

Pure "spin" in MHO.

So sad.

Diane

(Rationing my Y2K online time... sorry didn't get back to you earlier).

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 20, 1999.

Definitely spin! And it's working. Just go to a Y2K meeting. Where there used to be 100, you're lucky to get 6.

wwwly2kkitchen.com

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), June 20, 1999.

He has learned his spin tactics from the master of splin KLINTOONIE

-- no spin (no spin@not.com), June 20, 1999.