Bill Text: CA AB807 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Chaptered


Bill Title: Bar pilots: pilotage rates.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2021-09-16 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 172, Statutes of 2021. [AB807 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB807-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 807
CHAPTER 172

An act to amend Sections 1170.1 and 1190 of, to add Sections 1190.2 and 1190.3 to, and to add and repeal Sections 1190.4 and 1190.5 of, the Harbors and Navigation Code, relating to bar pilots, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor  September 16, 2021. Filed with Secretary of State  September 16, 2021. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 807, Grayson. Bar pilots: pilotage rates.
Existing law provides for the regulation and licensing of pilots for Monterey Bay and the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun. Existing law also establishes, in the Transportation Agency, a Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun and prescribes the membership, functions, and duties of the board with regard to the licensure and regulation of bar pilots. Existing law prescribes the rates of bar pilotage fees required to be charged by pilots and paid by vessels inward and outward bound through those bays and requires the board to recommend that the Legislature, by statute, adopt a schedule of pilotage rates providing fair and reasonable return to pilots piloting vessels in those bays. Existing law also imposes, among other things, a board operations surcharge of up to 7.5% of all bar pilotage fees charged by bar pilots, which is paid into the State Treasury to the credit of the Board of Pilot Commissioners’ Special Fund and continuously appropriated to the board to compensate the board and the agency for their services and expenses. Existing law authorizes the board to adjust the bar pilotage fees due to catastrophic cost increases, as specified.
This bill would increase the bar pilotage rate, as specified. By increasing the rate of bar pilotage fees, which may thereby increase the amount of the board operations surcharge and the amount of moneys paid into the fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would delete the authority of the board to adjust pilotage fees due to catastrophic cost increases and instead would require a surcharge to be imposed per each movement of a vessel using pilot services as is necessary and authorized by the board to recover the costs of the pilot associated with a catastrophic event, as specified. The bill, until January 1, 2023, would impose a movement fee on a vessel using pilotage services, as is necessary and authorized by the board, to recover a pilot’s costs for the purchase of a new pilot dispatch system in 2021. The bill, until January 1, 2024, would also impose an additional movement fee on a vessel using pilotage services, as is necessary and authorized by the board, to recover a pilot’s costs for deferred and current maintenance for pilot vessels between January 1, 2021, and October 1, 2023. The bill would also make other technical changes and delete obsolete provisions.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: YES   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 1170.1 of the Harbors and Navigation Code is amended to read:

1170.1.
 In determining the number of pilots needed, pursuant to Section 1170, the board shall take into consideration the findings and declarations in Sections 1100 and 1101, the results of an audit made pursuant to, and the factors specified in, Section 1203, the industry’s current economic trends, fluctuations in the number of vessel calls, the size of vessels, whether the need for pilotage is increasing or decreasing, and the 1986 manpower study adopted by the board.

SEC. 2.

 Section 1190 of the Harbors and Navigation Code is amended to read:

1190.
 (a) Every vessel spoken inward or outward bound shall pay the following rate of bar pilotage through the Golden Gate and into or out of the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun:
(1) Ten dollars and twenty-six cents ($10.26) per draft foot of the vessel’s deepest draft and fractions of a foot pro rata, and an additional charge of 92.43 mills per high gross registered ton.
(2) (A) A minimum charge for bar pilotage shall be six hundred sixty-two dollars ($662) for each vessel piloted.
(B) On and after January 1, 2022, a minimum charge for bar pilotage shall be one thousand eight hundred seventy-five dollars ($1,875) for each vessel piloted.
(C) On and after January 1, 2023, a minimum charge for bar pilotage shall be two thousand six hundred dollars ($2,600) for each vessel piloted.
(3) The vessel’s deepest draft shall be the maximum draft attained, on a stillwater basis, at any part of the vessel during the course of that transit inward or outward.
(b) The rate specified in subdivision (a) shall apply only to a pilotage that passes through the Golden Gate to or from the high seas to or from a berth within an area bounded by the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge to the north and Hunter’s Point to the south. The rate for pilotage to or from the high seas to or from a point past the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge or Hunter’s Point shall include a movement fee in addition to the basic bar pilotage rate, as specified by the board pursuant to Section 1191.
(c) The rate established in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) shall be for a trip from the high seas to dock or from the dock to high seas. The rate specified in Section 1191 shall not be charged by pilots for docking and undocking vessels.

SEC. 3.

 Section 1190.2 is added to the Harbors and Navigation Code, to read:

1190.2.
 (a) There shall be an incremental rate of additional mills per high gross registered ton as is necessary and authorized by the board to recover the pilots’ costs of obtaining new pilot boats and of funding design and engineering modifications for the purposes of extending the service life of existing pilot boats, excluding costs for repair or maintenance.
(b) The incremental mill rate charge authorized by this section shall be identified as a pilot boat surcharge on the pilots’ invoices and separately accounted for in the accounting required by Section 1136.
(c) Net proceeds from the sale of existing pilot boats shall be used to reduce the debt on the new pilot boats and any debt associated with the modification of pilot boats under this section. The board may adjust a pilot boat surcharge to reflect any associated operational savings resulting from the modification of pilot boats under this subdivision, including, but not limited to, reduced repair and maintenance expenses.

SEC. 4.

 Section 1190.3 is added to the Harbors and Navigation Code, to read:

1190.3.
 (a) There shall be an additional surcharge imposed per each movement of a vessel using pilot services as is necessary and authorized by the board to recover the costs of the pilot associated with a catastrophic event. The surcharge authorized by this subdivision shall be identified as a catastrophic event surcharge on the invoice of the pilot and separately accounted for in the accounting pursuant to Section 1136.
(b) The board shall authorize a pilot to establish a catastrophic event memorandum account and to record in that account the costs of maintaining, restoring, repairing, or replacing the provision of pilotage services to customers due to a catastrophic event.
(c) Subdivision (a) only applies if the board identifies that the costs recorded in a catastrophic event memorandum account are attributable to a specifically identifiable catastrophic event. Catastrophic events include, but are not limited to, fire, earthquake, terrorism, act of war, or epidemic, if the event has been declared an emergency or a disaster by a local, state, or federal governmental authority.
(d) The costs, including capital costs, recorded in a catastrophic event memorandum account shall only be recovered through the catastrophic event surcharge following the submission of an application by an affected pilot, the board finding the reasonableness of the costs identified in a catastrophic event memorandum account, and approval by the board of a definitive and exact amount of costs authorized to recover. The board may adjust the total amount of costs to be recovered to reflect any associated savings to ongoing operations or other pilot capital costs as a result from the expense of pilot costs associated with those identified in a catastrophic event memorandum account.
(e) The board shall hold a proceeding in response to a pilot application to recover costs associated with catastrophic events, including a hearing conducted pursuant to Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(f) The catastrophic event surcharge shall only be billed on the first day of the fiscal quarter after final approval by the board of an application of an affected pilot, and upon a separate action by the board at a following meeting to set a reasonable time and rate of recovery recommended by the finance committee of the board. The finance committee recommendation shall take into consideration any impact that the catastrophic event may have had on pilot customers and may reduce or extend the terms of the surcharge imposition as appropriate.
(g) The moneys collected under a catastrophic event surcharge shall be used only to recover the costs approved in the pilot catastrophic event memorandum account in the manner established by the board.
(h) At the recommendation of the finance committee, the board may adjust the surcharge amount established pursuant to subdivision (a) as necessary to efficiently administer the recovery of costs of the catastrophic event memorandum account, with adjustments to take effect only on the first day of the fiscal quarter following adjustment of the surcharge.
(i) Information regarding moneys remitted to an affected pilot and moneys collected from the surcharge pursuant to subdivision (a), as well as information regarding moneys spent as catastrophic event memorandum account costs, shall be made available to the board or its finance committee in a regular format upon request by the board or its finance committee. The information shall additionally be made available to the public upon request to the board.
(j) The board shall adopt, by regulation, the process for approving the recovery of catastrophic event costs, including, but not limited to, the form and information it shall require in an application for the recovery of costs related to a catastrophic event and the format for the catastrophic event memorandum account reports acceptable to the board.

SEC. 5.

 Section 1190.4 is added to the Harbors and Navigation Code, to read:

1190.4.
 (a) There shall be a movement fee imposed as is necessary and authorized by the board to recover a pilot’s costs for the purchase of a new pilot dispatch system in 2021.
(b) The movement fee authorized by this section shall be identified as a dispatch system purchase surcharge on a pilot’s invoices and separately accounted for in the accounting required by subdivision (b) of Section 1136.
(c) The cumulative amount of the surcharge collected pursuant to this section shall not exceed two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000).
(d) The board shall review and adjust as necessary the dispatch system purchase surcharge authorized by this section at least quarterly.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2023, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2023, deletes or extends that date.

SEC. 6.

 Section 1190.5 is added to the Harbors and Navigation Code, to read:

1190.5.
 (a) In addition to any pilot boat surcharge established pursuant to Section 1190.2, there shall be a movement fee imposed as is necessary and authorized by the board to recover a pilot’s costs for the maintenance, both deferred and current, of pilot boats that are presented to the board and identified for purposes of recovery under this section on or after January 1, 2021, and before October 1, 2023.
(b) The movement fee authorized by this section shall be included in the identification of the pilot boat surcharge on the pilots’ invoices pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1190.2, and separately accounted for in the accounting required by Section 1136.
(c) The cumulative amount of the pilot boat maintenance surcharge collected pursuant to this section shall not exceed one million four hundred thousand dollars ($1,400,000).
(d) The board shall review and adjust as necessary the pilot boat maintenance surcharge authorized by this section at least quarterly.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2024, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2024, deletes or extends that date.

SEC. 7.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to assist in the facilitation of the safe movement of vessels and expedite maritime commerce on the navigational channels of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River systems, and to respond in part to the impacts of the ongoing crisis with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions to trade that has resulted in depressed business conditions, congestion in and around the navigational channels, and other related challenges, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.
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