AGENCIES ZERO IN ON Y2K; EMERGENCY PERSONNEL READY FOR MIDNIGHT.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

While most Ventura County residents will be welcoming the New Year at parties and dinners, public employees will be working to head off any problems caused by Y2K.

Ventura County fire personnel will rise before the crack of dawn Friday, tracking world events for Y2K catastrophes.

Thousand Oaks employees will be on call around the clock, while the city of Moorpark will assign a staffer to man an emergency phone at City Hall throughout Friday night.

"We are all going to be here," said James Friedl Jr., Thousand Oaks' deputy city manager. "I might not be enjoying my champagne as I might otherwise, and a bunch of department heads will be drinking Martinelli's (sparkling apple cider).

"People will be with their families and going to celebrations, but we will all have our cell phones and be here on a moment's notice."

Friedl and officials in other cities said they don't anticipate any Y2K-related computer problems because their systems have been upgraded and tested.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department will be out on the street in full force and will beef up security around government buildings to ward off potential terrorist activities, spokesman Eric Nishimoto said.

And tactical teams such as SWAT will be dressed, assembled together and ready to go.

"We canceled vacations for everybody, so everyone who is available who is not working will be on call," Nishimoto said.

The Emergency Operations Center will operate from 6 a.m. Friday until Saturday morning with a staff of 40 to 50 people at any given time, he said.

"We are just a coordinating point, gathering all the information and monitoring the New Year as it rolls around the globe," he said.

"We also have been doing intelligence and know where the various parties are around the county as far as organized events where they are expecting hundreds of people," he said. "We are expecting nothing to happen."

Many agencies and cities will open their emergency operations center or command post. The EOCs, with their banks of televisions, telephones and radios, will gather and disseminate information about the Y2K rollover.

"We should know five to two hours ahead of time what might be happening around the world," said Friedl. "We might have everybody come in at midnight if there's a problem in New York or Chicago. It all depends on the situation."

The Simi Valley Police Department will have an emergency operations center in the community room of the police station on Alamo Street.

"We're going to bring in the New Year pretty much on duty," said Police Chief Randy Adams. "We're hoping it comes in peacefully. But if not, we're going to keep them under control. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about in our community."

The city also will have computer specialists in the EOC and other employees on call in case there are any problems.

In Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, the communities' volunteer Disaster Response Teams will be on hand should an emergency break.

And the EOC in Agoura Hills City Hall will be fired up and ready to go if anything happens, said Greg Ramirez, assistant to the city manager.

"The city manager will be on call and be out in the field acting as the main point of contact from the city's point of view," Ramirez said.

He said the city manager will ride with an officer in a patrol car monitoring the city especially as the clock nears midnight Friday.

"Our staff is all going to be on call," said Steve Adams, assistant city manager in Westlake Village. "We will be depending on the sheriff's agency as the lead agency. They will have extra staffing through the evening and the next day."

Adams said the plan in place to deal with potential Y2K problem is what is normally followed in the event of a disaster such as an earthquake.

Adams said he will be coordinating with the Sheriff's Department and the county EOC for status reports, and all eight of the city's employees will be within reach of a cell phone.

In Moorpark, a city staffer will field calls from residents on service outages or disruptions. The employee will work out of the city's EOC beginning 9 p.m. Friday until 2 a.m. Jan. 1. If there is an emergency the EOC will go into operation with city employees brought in as needed.

Calabasas city employees will work in shifts, staffing the EOC from Thursday evening to Saturday, said Kris Higdon, deputy city clerk.

Ventura County Fire is increasing its staffing by 60 people, said spokeswoman Sandi Wells. Units such as hazardous materials and the urban search and rescue team will see more staff and a civil disturbance task force and a construction unit, which is able to move portable generators, have been assembled, she said.

The department will open its EOC up at 4 a.m. Friday staffed by Situation Status people who will monitor world events. The center will remain open until Jan. 3.

"The positive thing is this has given us a chance to staff up ahead of time and be proactive instead of reactive," she said. "We work very well with other agencies in the county but this has given us more of an opportunity to work together."

THE FACTS

Here are phone numbers to call for information on Y2K:

--Ventura County Sheriff's Department: [phone]

--Moorpark City Hall emergency line: [phone]

--City of Ventura: [phone]

--Thousand Oaks: [phone]

--Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento:

http://followthesun.ca.gov

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Box: The Facts (see text)