BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1888
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1888 (Ma)
As Amended June 14, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(May 6, 2010) |SENATE: |33-0 |(August 5, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: TRANS.
SUMMARY : Allows noncommercial vessels that are maritime academy
training vessels and vessels owned and operated by nonprofit
museums or foundations to receive pilotage services at no
charge, other than the Board of Pilot Commissioners (Board)
operations surcharge; exempts large yachts, as defined, from
pilotage requirements; and establishes staggered term limits for
members of the Board.
The Senate amendments :
1)Stagger the terms for members of the Board who are licensed
pilots and industry representatives, as specified.
2)Reestablish the Board operations surcharge whenever
noncommercial maritime academy training vessels or vessels
owned and operated by a nonprofit museum or foundation use
Board pilots.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes Board for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo
Suisun, and Monterey to license and regulate maritime pilots
who guide vessels entering or leaving those bays. The seven
members of the Board are appointed by the Governor with the
consent of the Senate.
2)Prescribes pilotage fee rates that vessel operators are
required to pay for pilotage services in or out of the Bays of
San Francisco, San Pablo, Suisun, and Monterey; establishes a
minimum charge for pilotage services at $662.
3)Imposes surcharges on pilotage fees to support the Board, pay
for navigational technology, provide pilot trainee and license
AB 1888
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pilot continuing education programs, maintain the pilot boats,
and pay pilot pensions.
4)Requires every pilot to provide a monthly accounting to the
Board of pilotage moneys received including the following
information:
a) The name of each vessel piloted;
b) The name of each vessel for which pilotage has been
charged or collected;
c) The amount charged to or collected for each vessel;
d) Any rebates made and allowed and for what amounts;
e) The depth of each vessel's draft and its highest gross
tonnage; and,
f) Whether the vessel was inward or outward bound.
5)Makes legislative findings and declarations that "the
individual physical safety and well-being of pilots is of
vital importance in providing required pilot services."
6)Requires, under federal law, that all foreign commercial
vessels in excess of 300 gross tons entering or leaving a
United States port use the services of maritime pilots.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Exempts from pilotage fees and surcharges noncommercial
vessels that are maritime academy training vessels and vessels
owned and operated by nonprofit museums or foundations,
including the Board operations surcharge.
2)Increased the size of recreational vessels, such as large
yachts, from 300 gross tons to 750 gross tons for which bar
pilot services are not required.
3)Revised the accounting information required monthly of the bar
pilots to include the amount of fees and surcharges not
collected from training and nonprofit vessels.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
AB 1888
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COMMENTS : Pilotage of international trade vessels in the United
States is regulated by individual states, each of which
maintains a pilotage system that is suited to the particular
needs and circumstances of its own waters. Every vessel,
foreign or domestic, engaged in international trade moving in
the waters of a state is required to take on a pilot licensed by
that state.
In California, when a vessel approaches the "SF" buoy 12 miles
west of the Golden Gate Bridge, a bar pilot boards the ship and
takes navigational control. It becomes the bar pilot's
responsibility to guide the ship to its berth. The bar pilots
provide service to all types of vessels, from large recreational
yachts over 300 gross tons to 100-foot tugs to 1000-foot
supertankers. Inland pilots (only one remaining) are not
licensed to operate outside of the Golden Gate Bridge in the
open ocean area but pilot the inland bays and river channels.
Current Charges: A vessel operator pays a California bar pilot
$8.11 per draft foot of the vessel's deepest draft plus a charge
of 80.55 mills per high gross registered ton. However,
according to the bill's sponsor, the San Francisco Bar Pilots
(Bar Pilots), this fee has not been charged to the museum ship
operated by the non-profit National Liberty Ship Memorial based
in San Francisco and the training ship of the California
Maritime Academy. Although waiving the fee has been the
practice for many years, the Bar Pilots were recently advised
that free pilotage conflicts with existing law and that they
have no discretion but to charge whenever pilotage services are
provided. Additionally, neither of these ships has paid any of
the multiple surcharges that accompany the pilotage fee, such as
surcharges collected to pay for continuing education,
navigational aids, and pension. According to the Bar Pilots,
pilots piloted these two ships only three or four times last
year.
The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) opposes
provisions waiving the surcharges for these two ships,
contending that this is an "issue of fairness because surcharges
are usually meant to pay for the cost of an item that either has
a public purpose (for example, support of the Board in lieu of
direct licensing fees, or trainee training), or for an aspect of
pilotage service that may be of a uniform benefit (such as the
surcharge for pilot boats or pilot continuing education). These
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vessels should at least pay these minimal surcharge amounts in
order to support the licensing, safety and public purposes as
outlined in statute." PMSA does not, however, oppose waiving
the pilotage fee for these ships.
Mega yacht exemption: Currently, recreational yachts less than
300 gross tons are not required to use bar pilot services. This
bill would increase the minimum recreational yacht size for
which pilotage services would not be required from 300 gross
tons to 750 gross tons.
In justifying this exemption, the Bar Pilots indicate that these
yachts, "despite their size, tend to draw only about 10-12 feet
of water. They are not at risk of running aground." Further,
and perhaps more significantly, the Bar Pilots contend that it
is dangerous for a bar pilot to board the yacht when the boats
are at sea because, "[u]nlike most commercial ships that have a
rather vertical side, the large mega yachts have flared sides
that make it difficult for pilot boats to come alongside for
boarding." Last year, the Bar Pilots piloted 9 yachts between
300 gross tons and 750 gross tons for a total of 36 boardings.
Related Bills: SB 300 (Yee) Chapter 497, Statutes of 2009,
established a surcharge for payment of navigational aids for bar
pilots and revised the pilotage rate based upon the current
number of bar pilots.
SB 1627 (Wiggins) Chapter 567, Statutes of 2008, established
legislative oversight over and administrative responsibility for
the Board.
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0005460