FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 630

PARTIAL VETO

                                  C 485 L 87

BYHouse Committee on Transportation (originally sponsored by Representatives Zellinsky, Schmidt, Gallagher and Haugen)

Revising certain pilotage requirements.

House Committe on Transportation

Senate Committee on Transportation

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

The State Pilotage Act creates the Board of Pilotage Commissioners and outlines its authority and duties.  The board is composed of two pilots, two shippers and two additional members who are to be persons interested in and concerned with pilotage with broad experience related to the maritime industry, exclusive of experience as either a state licensed pilot or as a shipping representative.  The pilot and the shipping representatives must be actively engaged in those activities at the time of appointment.  There is no prohibition that the other two members of the board must not be either a state pilot or a shipping company person.

The board does not have the authority to preclude a pilot from serving on a certain company's vessels.

To prosecute violators of the State Pilotage Act, the board must bring charges through the prosecuting attorney in the county where a violation of the act has occurred.

A joint subcommittee of the House and Senate Transportation committees reviewed the State Pilotage Act during 1986.  This legislation reflects many of the recommendations of that subcommittee.

SUMMARY:

The following changes in the Board of Pilotage Commissioners' structure are made: (1) the chair of the Board of Pilotage Commissioners is changed from the secretary of the Department of Transportation to the assistant secretary for the Marine Division; (2) the shipping and pilot members of the board must remain actively engaged in those respective vocations while serving on the board; (3) one each of the pilot representatives on the board must be from the Grays Harbor and the Puget Sound pilotage districts; and (4) citizen members of the board may not have been pilots or employees of a shipping company for 10 years prior to appointment to the board, and may not have any direct financial interest related to pilotage or shipping companies.

The board is authorized to bring actions to prosecute those violating the State Pilotage Act through the attorney general, in addition to the current authority for using a county prosecuting attorney.

A steamship company or agent may request to the board, for specific safety reasons, that a particular pilot not be assigned to its vessels.  A hearing on that request is provided and the board is granted the authority to deny a pilot the ability to serve on that company's vessels.

The Grays Harbor Pilotage District is redefined to include Willapa Harbor, and the board is given authority to establish the boundary line between the harbors and the high seas.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 95   0

      Senate    46     2(Senate amended)

      House 96   0(House concurred)

EFFECTIVE:July 26, 1987

Partial Veto Summary:  Changes providing that citizen members of the Board of Pilotage Commissioners may not have been state licensed pilots or shipping employees for 10 years prior to appointment to the board and may not have a direct financial interest related to pilotage or shipping companies are vetoed.  (See VETO MESSAGE)