California seeks to increase oversight of Bay Area pilotage agency

California seeks to increase oversight of Bay Area pilotage agency Sacramento lawmakers today will consider legislation to place the state's semi-autonomous agency that appoints, regulates and licenses Bay Area marine pilots under more direct state control.
   Introduced last month by State Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, S.B. 1627 proposes to place control over California's Board of Pilot Commissioners for the bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun in the hands of the state's Department of Consumer Affairs. The bill will visit the State Senate floor today during a hearing by the Senate Governmental Organization Committee.
   The seven-member pilot board, appointed by the governor, has sole authority to determine the qualifications and requirements for obtaining a pilot license, and it also authorizes the board to suspend or revoke licenses for misconduct, and it specifies procedures for such action.
   The board has come under heavy scrutiny in the wake of the COSCO Busan oil spill in San Francisco harbor in November 2007. A licensed Bay Area pilot, at the helm of the containership during heavy fog, is being prosecuted by the federal government for running the vessel into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Nov. 7. The collision tore a 160-foot gash in the vessel's side resulting in the discharge of more than 50,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay, The oil spill closed dozens of beaches, killed thousands of birds and will eventually cost hundreds of millions in clean-up costs, lawsuits and lost economic earnings to Bay Area businesses.
   Following a board investigation into the spill, the board confiscated the pilot's license and restricted him to desk duty.
   However, revelations that the pilot had a well-above-average rate of incidents on the job, and that the punishments meted out by the pilot board drew the ire of lawmakers and local residents. The board operates with little to no oversight from the state government, and though the state can conduct a yearly audit of the board, this has rarely been done.
   S.B. 1627 would remove the pilot board's autonomy and place it under direct control of the DCA. The board would also be renamed to the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, Suisun and Monterey.
   The bill also calls for creation of an executive officer position within the board's organization, a special fund to be set up to pay for administration of the board oversight, and create a pilot training program. Funds to support the oversight and education programs would come from the fees the pilots charge to ocean carriers.
   Under terms of the bill, the board would have to provide an annual accounting of certain statistical information to the legislature, including incidents by its pilots and reports against board licensees. Financial reporting and appearances before the appropriate state budget committees would also be mandated.