SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 5649

BYSenators Peterson, Conner, Hansen and Garrett

Revising certain pilotage requirements.

Senate Committee on Transportation

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 11, 1987; March 2, 1987

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5649 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators Peterson, Chairman; Hansen, Vice Chairman; Tanner, Vice Chairman; Bailey, Barr, Bender, Conner, DeJarnatt, Garrett, Halsan, Johnson, Patterson, Sellar, Smitherman, West.

Senate Staff:Gene Baxstrom (786-7303)

                  March 4, 1987

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION, MARCH 2, 1987

BACKGROUND:

The State Pilotage Act, Chapter 88.16 RCW, creates the Board of Pilotage Commissioners and outlines their duties and authority.  Statute provides that the Board be composed of two pilots, two shippers, and two additional members who shall 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.  There currently is no specific requirement that the pilot representative or the shipping representative be presently actively engaged in those activities nor that the other two members of the Board not be either a state pilot or a shipping company person.

The Board is required to include in its annual report, a listing of all accidents, incidents, mishaps, as well as pilotage related complaints that were filed with the Board.  The Board has no specific statutory authority to appoint advisory committees or to employ marine experts as necessary to carry out its duties. Neither does the Board have the authority to preclude a pilot from serving on a certain company's vessels.

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

Liability for a state licensed pilot is currently limited to $5,000.

A joint subcommittee of the House and Senate Transportation Committees reviewed the State Pilotage Act during 1986.  The following summary reflects the recommendations of that subcommittee which relate to the Board.

SUMMARY:

The following changes in Board structure are: (1) the current chair of the Board of Pilotage Commissioners is changed from the Secretary of Transportation to the Assistant Secretary of Transportation; (2) authority for the chair to name another departmental employee as chair is retained; (3) the shipping and pilot members of the Board must remain actively engaged in those respective vocations while serving on the Board; (4) citizen members of the Board may not have been a pilot or employee of a shipping company for ten years prior to appointment to the Board and may not have any direct financial interest related to pilotage or shipping companies.

The requirement that incidents, complaints and mishaps be set forth in the Board's annual report is deleted.  Where pilot error has contributed to an occurrence, it must still be reported.

The Board is specifically authorized to appoint advisory committees and to employ marine experts as necessary to fulfill its duties.  The Board is authorized to bring actions to prosecute those violating the Pilotage Act through the Attorney General, in addition to the current authority for a county attorney general.

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 current liability limit for state licensed pilots is increased from $5,000 to $10,000.

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

Obsolete language is deleted.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE:

Deleted are:  1) changes in language regarding citizen members of the Board; 2) the increase in pilot liability limits; and 3) the ability for a steamship to refuse the services of a pilot.

It is specified that one of the pilot members of the Board be from the Port Angeles Pilotage District and that one be from the Grays Harbor Pilotage District.

Also deleted is language which provides that only accidents as defined by the Board be included in its annual report and language which authorizes the Board to appoint advisory committees and employ consultants (these provisions were incorporated into SB 5650, which also amended RCW 88.16.035, in order to avoid a double amendment to that section.

Fiscal Note:      none requested

Senate Committee - Testified: Ralph White, Chairman, Board of Pilotage Commissioners; Robert Kromann, President, Port Angeles Pilots Association; John Woodring, Port Angeles Pilots Association; Randy Ray, Puget Sound Steamship Operators Association; Hal Schuyler, Sea-Land, Inc.; Vern Lindskog, major oil companies