BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2042
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2042 (Huber)
As Introduced February 23, 2012
Majority vote
TRANSPORTATION 14-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| |Jeffries, Achadjian, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Blumenfield, Bonilla, | |Calderon, Campos, Davis, |
| |Buchanan, Eng, Furutani, | |Donnelly, Gatto, Hall, |
| |Galgiani, Logue, Miller, | |Hill, Lara, Mitchell, |
| |Norby, Portantino, | |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio, |
| |Solorio | |Wagner |
| | | | |
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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 for 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 (Secretary).
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.
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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prior to the date the agency is scheduled to be repealed, and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.
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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee,
negligible costs to transfer the Board's duties to the Secretary,
which will include fee authority to allow the Secretary to cover the
costs of administering the Board's programs.
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
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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 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) of 2011, was 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.
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN:
0003375
AB 2042
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