| California Board of Pilot Commissioners | |
|---|---|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | February 25, 1850 |
| Headquarters | 660 Davis Street,San Francisco, CA 94111 |
| Employees | 3 permanent full-time staff, contractors |
| Annual budget | $2 million (2009) |
| Agency executive | Allen Garfinkle, Executive Director Captain Bruce Horton, San Francisco Bar Pilot Association, Port Agent |
| Website | |
| http://www.bopc.ca.gov/ | |
California Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun is the state agency responsible for setting regulations and licensing requirements for pilots within one of the largest harbors in the world and the tributary Sacramento River delta. It licenses and regulates up to 60 San Francisco Bar Pilots[1] as trip pilots are known on San Francisco Bay.
The Board of Commissioners was created in 1850 during the first session of the California State Legislature. Once an independent agency, the Board of Commissioners became a department of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency in 2009. Surcharges paid on pilotage fees finance the work of the commission, making it completely self-supporting.
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The commission's jurisdiction includes all of the bays and ports in the San Francisco Bay area, and the tributaries up to the ports of Stockton and Sacramento, and Monterey Bay. Pilots on other California waters operate under the authority of their federal pilot’s license. Port of Los Angeles pilots are municipal employees. Port of Long Beach pilots work for a private contractor. Pilots in the ports of Humbolt Bay, San Diego, and Port Hueneme are commissioned or contracted with by their respective port authorities or districts.
The commission has eight members appointed by the governor of California as follows.
The first President of the Pilot Commission was Commander Cadwalader Ringgold, USN.
Some of the pilot boats used in San Francisco Bay have independent histories. The motorboat USS California was completed in 1910 and served in World War I on harbor patrol duty. The two-masted gaff-rigged schooner Zodiac, built as a racing sailboat in 1924 and also named California after being acquired by the San Francisco Pilots Association for use as a pilot boat, is one of few surviving sailing pilots in existence. The two-masted gaff-rigged schooner Adventuress launched in 1913 also saw service as a pilot boat, and during World War II served with the United States Coast Guard. The Zodiac and Adventuress are both listed with the National Register of Historic Places and are now cruising in Washington state after restorations.[2][3]
The COSCO Busan oil spill in 2007 resulting from the allision of an oil tanker with the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was the basis for legislation that ended the 159 years of independence of the Board of Pilot Commissioners and reorganized it into a department of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.[4]
In 2011, California State Assemblymember Fiona Ma, Speaker pro tempore of the State Assembly, introduced Assembly Bill 907, which would have provided for an increase in the rates charged ship owners for pilot services. The proposal generated significant opposition from a trade association representing some of the shipping companies operating ships calling in San Francisco Bay because those users of pilotage services believed that pilots were adequately compensated under existing rates. The bill was withdrawn from consideration but may be re-introduced in 2012.
Also in 2011, the Commission received and accepted a landmark study on Pilot Fitness, conducted by Dr. Robert Kosnik, B.Sc, M.D., D.I.H. of the University of California, San Francisco. This study will form the basis of new regulations concerning Pilot Fitness within the jurisdiction of the Board and has the potential to set a new standard worldwide on Pilot Fitness.[1]