With roughly two weeks remaining before the new year and the alleged Y2K bug, the city of Los Altos is racing to finish making the police department's emergency systems Y2K compliant.
Scott Nielsen, the city's technical services manager, said most of the police department's emergency systems are in place for Y2K. He said the city still needs to load and test the software for the records management system, which stores police case files.
The city had anticipated having the 6-year-old system replaced and tested by Dec. 30. Nielsen said he doesn't expect the system to be up and running until Jan. 10, due to delays from the vendor. VisionSoftware, Inc. is replacing the system.
The Y2K bug is about the computer's ability to express read time. Some computer only read the last two digits of the date. These computers could read "00" and shut down in the confusion. Those computers that can register the "00" date are considered compliant.
"Citizens won't notice a disruption in service," Nielsen said about the city's records system. "We'll do a manual fix for the 10 days." This means city employees will have to manually enter case numbers into the computer, which Nielsen modified to read all four digits of a year.
If that fails, Nielsen said employees will have to write information by hand.
The city council last September earmarked $330,032 for computer equipment to make the police department Y2K compliant.
Nielsen said when you talk about 911, there's different pieces - most of which the city has tested and are compliant.
Nielsen said Pacific Bell upgraded and tested the telephone network that supports 911. The system is compliant.
He said the building's power, water and computer-aided dispatch and radio systems are compliant.
According to a final report on the nation's Y2K readiness released last month by the President's Council On the Year 2000 Conversion, many 911 emergency services have been late in addressing problems in their automated systems. The report indicates that a lot work still needs to be completed.
The problem is particularly acute in medium-size communities that are big enough to have automated 911 systems but not large enough to have the personnel to upgrade them, according to the council.