BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2042
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Date of Hearing: April 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 2042 (Huber) - As Introduced: February 23, 2012
SUBJECT : Joint Sunset Review Committee: Board of Pilot
Commissioners
SUMMARY : Sunsets the Board of Pilot Commissioners for Monterey
Bay, and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun
(Board) on January 1, 2022. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes various findings and declarations pertaining to the safe
pilotage of vessels Monterey Bay and the Bays of San
Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun.
2)Eliminates the Board on January 1, 2022.
3)Recasts and reenacts provisions related to the licensing and
regulation of the San Francisco bar pilots without the Board
on January 1, 2022.
4)Transfers the duties and responsibilities of the Board, after
January 1, 2022, to the Secretary of the Business,
Transportation and Housing Agency.
5)Renames the Board's Special Fund as the Bar Pilot Special
Fund.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Joint Sunset Review Committee (JSRC) to
identify and eliminate waste, duplication, and inefficiency in
government agencies and to conduct a comprehensive analysis of
every "eligible agency," as defined, to determine if the
agency is still necessary and cost effective.
2)Requires each eligible agency scheduled for repeal to submit a
report to the JSRC containing specified information. Requires
the JSRC to take public testimony and evaluate the eligible
agency prior to the date the agency is scheduled to be
repealed, and would require that an eligible agency be
eliminated unless the Legislature enacts a law to extend,
consolidate, or reorganize the agency.
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3)Establishes in the Business, Transportation and Housing
Agency, the Board and prescribes its membership, functions,
and duties; established the Board in 1850 to provide state
oversight for the regulation and licensing of the San
Francisco bar pilots.
4)Establishes the Board's Special Fund, a continuously
appropriated fund, for the purposes of receiving moneys
received by the Board in the implementation of carrying out
the licensing and regulation of the bar pilots and its
training programs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The author indicates that the Legislature creates new
boards, commissions, agencies and departments to solve a
problem, but far too often there is no ongoing oversight of a
newly created bureaucracy to ensure it actually solved the
problem it was created to solve. The author believes that this
systematic dysfunction can be fixed by conducting comprehensive,
regular review of state government to ensure taxpayer dollars
are being used wisely.
The author points out that in 1989, the Little Hoover Commission
(LHC) issued a report, entitled Boards and Commissions:
California's Hidden Government, which found that, "California's
multi-level, complex governmental structure today includes more
than 400 boards, commissions, authorities, associations,
councils and committees. These plural bodies operate to a large
degree autonomously and outside of the normal checks and
balances of representative government." The LHC concluded that
"the state's boards, commissions and similar bodies are
proliferating without adequate evaluation of need, effectiveness
and efficiency."
The San Francisco Bay bar pilots have been providing navigation
services for the San Francisco Bay Area since 1850. During this
period, the bar pilots have ensured the safe and efficient
movement of the largest vessels that traverse the San Francisco
Bay, adjacent bays and tributaries, and Monterey Bay. The Board
licenses these bar pilots who guide certain vessels into, out
of, and through San Francisco, San Pablo, Suisun, and Monterey
bays and the ports of West Sacramento and Stockton. The Board
also investigates navigational incidents, misconduct, and other
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matters involving pilots and maintains a training program for
new pilots. The Board receives its funding through surcharges to
the payments for a bar pilot's services.
According to author, the Board has been in continuous existence
for over a century and a half, but was not subject to external
review until 2009, when the California Bureau of State Audits
(BSA) conducted a comprehensive review of the Board's
performance and finances. The author indicates that after BSA
criticized the Board's administrative and regulatory
functioning, it responded promptly to the report and began
reforming many of its operations.
Separately, the JSRC provided a review of the Board and
submitted a report at their hearing on February 15, 2012. In
the course of their sunset review, the JSRC staff determined
that the Board "continues to be a necessary regulatory agency
for the state-licensed bar pilots, and has suggestions to
increase its cost effectiveness and transparency."
This bill establishes a sunset date for the Board on January 1,
2022, that will trigger the next JSRC sunset review before that
date. This action is consistent with current law that requires
each eligible agency scheduled for repeal to submit a report to
JSRC and requires JSRC to evaluate the eligible agency prior to
the sunset date.
Related bills : AB 656 (Huber) 2011, a similar bill as passed by
the Assembly Transportation Committee. However, that bill was
amended in the Senate on August 16, 2011, removing all
provisions related to the Board.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
AB 2042
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