October 14, 1999
Mayor Williams Hosts Nine-city Year 2000 Consortium
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) District of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams today welcomed representatives from nine major U.S. cities at a Year 2000 Consortium designed to address concerns and share approaches between the urban municipalities.
“Y2K isn’t just a problem we need to fix,” said Mayor Williams, “It presents an opportunity for our government to win back the confidence of our citizens by demonstrating that we can handle a difficult challenge. This is a test I intend to pass.”
The nine-city Y2K Consortium is the third such meeting of the major cities in the last year and the first hosted by the District of Columbia. Today’s session focused on emergency management, communications and contingency planning—all year-end transition activities taking place in every community.
“While every community is focusing on the date change rollover,” said Suzanne J. Peck, Chief Technology Officer for the District, “these large municipalities share a number of unique issues because of the size and complexity of our urban operations. We are grateful for the participation of these cities and the forum it allows us to learn from each other’s experiences in preparing for the Year 2000 transition.”
“The partnership between our cities and our respective Year 2000 teams was critical to the progress we have made in our preparations for the date changeover,” said Ms. Peck. “Today’s exchange of information will help us with our final transition activities.”
The nine cities participating in today’s summit meeting include Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia.
Also speaking at the Consortium were John Koskinen, chairman of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion, and Lt. General Peter Kind, title, of the President’s Y2K Council, Information Coordination Center.
