I guess I am missing something here.
ref-timezones should have everything you need and I don't believe that date/times should always be stored in the DB,but if they are they should be stored in the server date setting (which IMHO should be UTC anyway).
I left AD before the java is god days so I don't know what went on then, but a good deal of time was spent in the LA office creating the timezone and datetime packages.
Again, I may be missing something obvious so ...
