BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1432|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1432
Author: Bonta (D), et al.
Amended: 5/11/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL ORG. COMMITTEE: 9-3, 7/14/15
AYES: Hall, Block, Galgiani, Glazer, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso,
Lara, McGuire
NOES: Gaines, Runner, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 6-1, 8/24/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
NOES: Bates
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 4/23/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San
Pablo, and Suisun: pilotage rates: technology
surcharge
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill authorizes until January 1, 2021 a
technology surcharge, not to exceed a cumulative amount of $1.2
million, to recover a pilot's costs for the purchase or lease of
navigation hardware and software to enhance navigation safety.
Senate Floor Amendments of 5/11/16 gut the contents of the
existing bill relating to across-the-board pilotage rate
increases, as specified, as well as a similar technology
AB 1432
Page 2
surcharge provision.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides for the regulation and licensure of pilots for
Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and
Suisun by the Board of Pilot Commissioners (Board) within the
Transportation Agency.
2)Specifies that the Board shall consist of seven members
appointed by the Governor and one ex-officio non-voting member
(the Secretary of the Transportation Agency). Two members are
pilots licensed by the Board; two are industry members (one
from the tanker industry and one from the dry cargo industry);
and, three public members who are neither pilots nor work for
companies that use pilots.
3)Prescribes the rates of pilotage fees required to be charged
by pilots and paid by vessels. The rates involved are set
forth in Sections 1190 and 1191 of the Harbors and Navigation
Code. Section 1190 relates to bar pilotage for every vessel
inward or outward bound over the San Francisco Bar, which lies
west of the Golden Gate Bridge, and charges vary, depending on
a vessel's gross registered tonnage and draft. Section 1191
of the Harbors and Navigation Code relates to charges for
transits that originate and are concluded inland of Golden
Gate Bridge - charges for these transits are flat amounts,
with the amounts varying with the places at which the transit
begins and ends.
4)Stipulates that the Board shall recommend that the
Legislature, by statute, adopt a schedule of pilotage rates
providing fair and reasonable return to pilots engaged in ship
movements or special operations if rates for those movements
or operations are not specified in Section 1190 of the Harbors
and Navigation Code.
5)Provides for a movement fee as is necessary and authorized by
the Board to recover a pilot's costs for the purchase, lease,
or maintenance of navigation software, hardware, and ancillary
equipment purchased after November 5, 2008 and before January
1, 2011.
AB 1432
Page 3
This bill:
1)Reinstitutes, until January 1, 2021, a technology surcharge,
not to exceed a cumulative amount of $1.2 million to recover a
pilot's costs for the purchase, lease, or maintenance of
navigation software, hardware, and ancillary equipment that is
authorized by the Board as reasonable and necessary on or
after January 1, 2017.
2)Makes it explicit that the software, equipment, and technology
shall be used strictly and exclusively to aid in piloting on
the pilotage grounds.
3)Requires the Board to review and adjust as necessary the
navigation technology surcharge at least quarterly.
4)Makes other conforming code maintenance changes.
Background
Brief historical perspective. Bar pilots have been guiding
ships into San Francisco Bay, one of the most treacherous
passages in the world, since at least 1835. The work that bar
pilots performed was so important that one of the first
legislative enactments by the newly formed California
Legislature that met in San Jose in 1850 was to address the
regulation of bar pilots.
California's history of piloting parallels to a large extent the
history of pilotage throughout the United States. Prior to the
American Revolution, pilotage was regulated by colonial
legislatures. They generally provided for the commissioning of
pilots, apprenticeship requirements to become a pilot, specified
the type and size of pilot boats used in the service, and
established fees to be charged. When the United States
Constitution was adopted, it recognized that pilotage fell
within the domain of the federal government because it involved
regulation of instruments of foreign commerce. One of the first
acts of the newly formed Congress in 1789 was to recognize the
existing state laws regulating pilots and delegate to the states
the authority to continue to regulate pilotage because of its
unique character.
AB 1432
Page 4
Bar pilots are responsible for steering an arriving vessel
through the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay, the Bay waters and
adjoining navigable waters, which include San Pablo Bay, Suisun
Bay, the Sacramento River and its tributaries. When a vessel
approaches the "SF" buoy several miles west of the Golden Gate
Bridge, a bar pilot boards the ship and takes navigational
control. (Pilots in San Francisco are called "Bar Pilots"
because they board and disembark ships just beyond a treacherous
sand bar which provides a natural obstacle to shipping.) It
becomes the pilot's responsibility to guide the ship to its
berth. The bar pilots provide service to all types of vessels,
from 100-foot tugs to 1000-foot supertankers.
Pilots are generally mandatory in every major port throughout
the world and their pilotage service is paid for by the vessel
owner/agent. As noted above, the San Francisco Bar Pilots have
been state regulated and licensed since 1850 to pilot vessels to
various ports in the Bay Area such as San Francisco, Oakland,
Redwood City, Martinez, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Vallejo, Rodeo,
Antioch, Stockton, Sacramento and more recently including
Monterey.
Purpose of AB 1432. According to the author's office, this bill
simply reflects an agreement reached between the San Francisco
Bar Pilots and the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association to
re-establish the navigation technology surcharge which was
allowed to sunset in 2011.
Prior Legislation
SB 300 (Yee, Chapter 497, Statutes of 2009) among other things,
established a surcharge for payment of navigational aids for bar
pilots.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Yes Fiscal
Com.: Yes Local: No
Unknown with latest amendments.
SUPPORT: (Verified 5/12/16)
Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
AB 1432
Page 5
San Francisco Bar Pilots
OPPOSITION: (Verified 5/12/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 4/23/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Salas
Prepared by:Arthur Terzakis / G.O. / (916) 651-1530
5/13/16 11:54:21
**** END ****