Y2K Arrives Locally With Nary a Glitch

Another Y2K hurdle was cleared in Ventura County on Monday when local governments and hundreds of area businesses turned on their computers for the first time in 2000 and encountered no major glitches.

The worst problems over the holiday weekend appeared to be a computer hiccup in Port Hueneme and a small sewage spill in Fillmore, which officials said had more to do with bad pipes than bad software.

“It’s business as usual. Everything is perfect,” said Sue Chadwick, senior vice president and regional manager for Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, which operates nine branches in Ventura County.

In all, the county and its 10 cities spent at least $15.8 million in taxpayer dollars upgrading computer and telephone systems to survive the dreaded rollover, which continues to be more digital fizzle than disaster.

That figure doesn’t include the still-untabulated cost of paying overtime to hundreds of law enforcement officers put to work over the weekend.

Local businesses spent millions more, although it was unclear how much.

Justifying the expense, many businesses and local governments said most of the computer upgrades were needed anyhow; Y2K simply provided a deadline.

Despite questions about whether the threat was overstated, J. Matthew Carroll, county information systems director who oversaw the changeover locally, insists that the money was well spent.

“You can’t even begin to contemplate what would have happened to our land tax or payroll systems if we didn’t fix them,” Carroll said of the process that began in late 1996. “It’s incomprehensible.

“The impact on the local economy would have been pretty serious. The court system wouldn’t have worked, all the things people take for granted.”

The county is spending $13.7 million alone on its various computer upgrades, some unrelated to Y2K.

Of that amount, as much as $5.1 million is being spent to modernize outdated billing systems at Ventura County Medical Center. Private hospitals also spent millions upgrading their systems.

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Additionally, the 10 cities in the county spent more than $2 million.

The overwhelming majority of those costs were incurred by the city of Oxnard, which spent $1.5 million to upgrade its police, fire and emergency dispatch system, as well as its computerized police records system. Officials said the system might well have shut down at midnight Dec. 31 had it not been replaced. About two-thirds of the money for those upgrades came from federal and state grants.

Oxnard will spend an additional $1 million in the coming year to complete upgrades that will eventually allow officers to file reports and check databases from laptop computers in patrol cars.

“I really do believe a lot of government agencies and private industries will see in five years that the benefit of what we did for Y2K will be significant,” Assistant Police Chief Tom Cady said.

Most cities on Monday reported no problems whatsoever.

In Port Hueneme, a minor programming bug caused some dates to end with “A0” rather than “00.” The problem was quickly corrected, an official said.

Some cities said they anticipate further minor programming glitches in the coming weeks, mostly because it is a leap year.

As for local businesses, Chamber of Commerce officials said they’d received no distress calls from members.

“Everybody seems to be up and running and doing business as usual,” said Zoe Taylor, the Ventura chamber’s chief executive.

Banks in Ventura County, which like many lending institutions were under intense Y2K scrutiny by federal regulators, reported no computer-related problems.

Sue Woolf, chief operations officer for Ventura-based American Commercial Bank, said crews tested ATM machines and computers over the holiday to prepare for the first day of business in the new year. The bank spent $100,000 getting ready, she said.

Some of the greatest pre-millennial fears were over systems handling hazardous waste, yet most appeared to function smoothly.

Mike Marostica, controller for waste hauler E. J. Harrison & Sons Inc., said the company’s refuse billing systems are functioning normally. Security systems on gates at landfills and recycling centers did not fail, and trucks continued to pick up rubbish just as they did last year.

Doug Beach of the Ventura County Environmental Health Division said sewage plants, water treatment facilities and companies with chemical stockpiles emerged unbitten by Y2K bugs.

The only notable event was a 50-gallon sewage spill in Fillmore over the weekend, which resulted from a clogged pipe, not a computer error, according to officials.

“We have not had a single report of problems from any business,” Beach said.

Oil rigs operating in federal waters along the Central Coast also came through the new year without problem, according to U. S. Minerals Management Service officials in Camarillo.

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As for spending by other cities, Camarillo spent $250,000 to replace most of its telephone and computer systems and meter reading equipment. Those upgrades were much needed anyhow, said Richard Hare, the city’s director of administrative services.

Fillmore spent less than $5,000 to update personal computers.

Ojai spent $70,000, mostly on a new computer and software system to track the city’s finances, a generator and a public information campaign.

Port Hueneme spent $75,000 on computer software, hardware and consulting. Its phone system was already compliant, Finance Director Michelle Lee said.

Simi Valley spent about $75,000, mostly to upgrade its sanitation plant and finance systems.

Thousand Oaks, one of the county’s richest cities, spent nothing, officials said. Computers are replaced so frequently that the systems were almost totally compliant. Upgrades were covered by service agreements.

Ventura’s tab came in at under $100,000, said Marilyn Leuck, administrative services director.

“We started three years ago completely rebuilding our computer system and the telephone system, which we needed to do anyway,” she said. “Along the way, we just made sure it was Y2K-compliant.”

Santa Paula’s bill totaled $400. That was spent to update wiring so that systems could run on a generator if the power failed.

The cash-strapped city was spared spending $250,000 to replace its dispatch system by heavy storms that destroyed it in 1998. Because the damage was covered by insurance, the city got a new system free of charge--one that was Y2K-ready.

Times staff writer Gary Polakovic contributed to this story.