Legislature(2003 - 2004)
02/13/2003 01:35 PM Senate L&C
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
February 13, 2003
1:35 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Con Bunde, Chair
Senator Ralph Seekins
Senator Bettye Davis
Senator Hollis French
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 20
"An Act extending the termination date of the Board of Marine
Pilots; and providing for an effective date."
MOVED SB 20 OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS ACTION
SB 20 - See Labor and Commerce minutes dated 2/6/03.
WITNESS REGISTER
Senator Gene Therriault
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of SB 20.
Ms. Pat Davidson
Legislative Auditor
PO Box 113300
Juneau AK 99811-3300
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the audit of the Board of
Marine Pilots.
Captain Bob Winter
Southeast Alaska Pilots Association
9370 View Dr.
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 20 and commented on drug
testing issues.
Ms. Kate Tesar
Alaska Yacht Services
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 20.
Mr. Jeff Bush
320 W 8th St.
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 20.
Mr. Don Habeger
Royal Caribbean International
9300 View Dr.
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 20.
Mr. Joe Geldhof
United States Navy League, Juneau Chapter
229 4th Street
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 20 and commented on a foreign
warships exemption.
Captain Dave Anders
Off Net
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 20 and commented on the small
yacht exemption issue.
Ms. Diana Fabozzi
Marsh Products Client Services
Ft. Lauderdale FL
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 20 and the small yacht
exemption issue.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 03-4, SIDE A
CHAIR CON BUNDE called the Senate Labor and Commerce Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. Present were Senators
Ralph Seekins, Bettye Davis, Hollis French and Chair Con Bunde.
SB 20-EXTEND BOARD OF MARINE PILOTS
CHAIR BUNDE announced SB 20 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR GENE THERRIAULT, sponsor of SB 20, said the committee
discussion last week was thorough, particularly on the issue of
small yacht activity. He continues to be contacted by Southeast
Alaska mayors who say they have an interest in seeing that
activity fostered. However, because small yacht activity is a
more complex issue, he hopes the committee will consider moving
this bill forward while other language is developed to address
yacht activity. He hopes the committee will talk about the
random drug testing program concerns because he wants to make
sure the current program is operating correctly.
MS. PAT DAVIDSON, Director of the Division of Legislative Budget
and Audit, told members that during the course of the audit
nothing indicated there are any problems with the drug-testing
program. The board delegated the authority for the drug-testing
program to the regional associations. She reviewed the program
with the board's assistance and found that the program just
needs some "tightening up." She explained that people need to be
aware of situations, "...where, for instance, a pilot is
currently unavailable to take the test because he is working or
if the office is closed."
MS. DAVIDSON pointed out that one of the associations joined
with other organizations to create a consortium to do testing.
She found the consortium was not meeting the 50 percent minimum
requirement, but she said it was just a matter of altering the
approach to testing. If a large pool requires 50 percent
testing, the [requirement for the] small pool of marine pilots
also needs to be 50 percent. The associations or their
contractors need to be reporting information regarding who was
available to be tested, who was tested and the test results to
the marine pilot coordinator. The coordinator needs to know of
any bad tests, whether those people were retested to insure test
validity and whether something needs to be done if a pilot comes
out with a "dirty" test. She noted, "You have to have the
board's involvement there."
MS. DAVIDSON said one other recommendation was that the
Legislature should decide whether to extend the drug-testing
requirement to trainees and apprentices. However, many of those
individuals, because of their occupations, are already under
some sort of required random testing, though possibly not to the
same extent as pilots.
1:40 p.m.
CAPTAIN BOB WINTER, Southeast Alaska Pilots Association,
informed the committee that the training program requires all
trainees to be enrolled in a random drug-testing program.
Regarding the issue of 50 percent of a large group or a small
group, the association was complying with federal statute, but
he assured the committee that it would come into compliance with
the random drug-testing question.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if he was talking about just random drug
testing or the random drug and alcohol-testing program.
CAPTAIN WINTER replied that he was referring to the random drug-
testing program and that holding a federal license requires
participation.
SENATOR FRENCH said that wouldn't stop anyone under the
influence of drugs from getting behind the wheel of a ship,
since it takes a few days for the test results to come back.
CAPTAIN WINTER replied the only way to know if someone was under
the influence is if that person was tested. It routinely takes 2
to 3 days to get test results back. A positive hit might trigger
a call from the medical review officer to the pilot's
association, to the officer and to the employer. The Coast Guard
would be called immediately. In all cases he knew of, the
individuals went in and provided another sample. He indicated,
"We never had a positive that was a true positive. They were all
false positives."
1:44 p.m.
CHAIR BUNDE commented that anyone who was under the influence
would have to be confronted by people working in the immediate
vicinity.
CAPTAIN WINTER added that the association is required by statute
to report any violation of state law and being under the
influence is a violation. The group would lose their charter as
a pilotage group if they didn't report.
MS. KATE TESAR, Alaska Yacht Services, said she hadn't had a
chance to talk with interested parties as she had agreed to do,
but support was flowing in about the economic stimulus that
yachts and their crews would provide to Southeast communities.
She explained that she was looking for a seamless intelligence
service that could coordinate between the states and the federal
government and perhaps Canada to figure out how they could look
at these issues. She found that Ed Page and his staff at the
Marine Exchange of Alaska already have a system in place called
the global marine distress signaling system. Under that system,
they put transponders on boats in Alaska and can locate the
boats as frequently as once every hour to find out their exact
position and, "It costs about $2.50."
MS. TESAR said she talked with folks at the International
Maritime Organization, which is the marine arm of the United
Nations. They adopted a comprehensive security regime that will
go into effect July 2004 and all the yachts the committee has
been talking about now have to comply. Her main concern relates
to recommendation 4 in the audit, which would give the board
statutory authority for discretion regarding waivers for the
yachts coming into the state.
MR. JEFF BUSH said he was representing himself. He reported that
until a week ago he was a member of the Board of Marine Pilots
and for the last six years he was chair of the board. He advised
that extending the Marine Pilot Board is the most important
thing this committee and Legislature could do.
He pointed out that the yacht issue has been before the board
for five years and he recommended that the Legislature consider
using a length of vessel waiver. The board had quite a bit of
discussion on the drug testing issue, although, he emphasized,
there had been no evidence of any drug abuse by the pilots. In
general, the board agreed with the auditor's recommendation as a
way to come up with a better system of drug testing.
MR. DON HABEGER, Royal Caribbean International, said his company
supports SB 20 and has no opinion one way or the other about
recommendation 4, but it does on recommendations 1 - 3. He said
all of the associations are complying with the recommendations.
He indicated that all of their deck officers are under a random
drug-testing program and he hopes the pilots are following the
same procedures. He asked the Legislature to make sure that is
"shorn up."
MR. JOE GELDHOF, Navy League of the United States, Juneau
Chapter, said he was disappointed that the interested parties
hadn't been able to talk about this issue yet and he hoped this
bill could move out of committee. He said:
The only issue the Navy League of the United States is
interested in is a minor technical cleanup for what
was an unanticipated problem with foreign warships,
specifically AS 08.62.190, which seems to allow for
Canadian ships in a casual trade.
He proposed the following technical amendment:
'Warships of foreign nations sailing in Alaska waters
at the invitation of the United States and having one
or more United States Naval officers aboard the
foreign warship to act as a liaison officer.'
He explained the context of that language is if Secretary
Rumsfeld said the Canadians, the Chileans or whoever could sail
in Alaska and those ships decide not to pick up a pilot; they
can sail under their own liability. He said although there were
discussions that they always pick up a pilot, that's not always
true.
MR. DOUG GREASON, Delta Marine Industries, said several hundred
of his company's fishing vessels fish in Alaska. He explained
that in the last dozen years his company has become a major
builder of large yachts of the type under discussion. He knows a
number of large vessel owners changed their plans to cruise
Alaska exclusively as a result of their understanding of the
pilotage requirements. The main concern they have is privacy.
Money is less of an issue than just not wanting a strange person
on the boat. He thinks that could be addressed by eliminating
pilotage on vessels up to a certain size.
CAPTAIN DAVE ANDERS said he has 20 years experience on yachts
and has a 1,600-ton U.S. license and a 3,000-ton British
license. Recently, he was on a 151 foot yacht that was traveling
around the world that was scheduled to go to Alaska in June of
2001. The Alaska portion of the trip was canceled primarily
because of the owner's desire for privacy. He didn't want a
stranger on board with his family and friends for the entire
time they would have been in Alaska. Of the 35 countries they
previously visited none had pilotage requirements that were as
stringent as the ones in Alaska.
SENATOR BUNDE asked if pilots are required in other locales, but
just not for the same amount of time that Alaska requires.
CAPTAIN ANDERS said that is correct. His yacht would have been
required to have a pilot on board the entire time they were in
Alaska waters except when they were moored to the land. Even if
they were at anchor, they would have been required to have a
pilot on board and the cost would have been approximately $3,000
per day. While privacy was the primary reason, being required to
have a pilot around the clock drove the cost way up.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if he had ever operated within the British
Columbia waiver system.
CAPTAIN ANDERS replied that he had, but he was required to have
a pilot only while they were under way and that cost $500 per
day.
SENATOR FRENCH said the system he was referring to requires
paying a certain fee and filling out a questionnaire about how
many English speaking people are on board the vessel and what
sort of navigation aids they have, etc.
CAPTAIN ANDERS replied that he complied with that system in
Washington State, which had a 10 to 12 page questionnaire.
SENATOR FRENCH said he was mistaken in thinking it was British
Columbia.
CAPTAIN ANDERS continued to explain that once he filled out the
questionnaire and sent in a copy of his license, he was granted
a waiver, which was totally acceptable from his point of view.
MS. DIANA FABOZZI, Marsh Product Client Services, agreed with
Captain Anders and said her company services 650 luxury yachts.
Her company works with only a handful of insurance companies
that write liability policies for luxury vessels. When
underwriting a yacht, they determine who the owner is, the
experience of the captain and crew, the yacht management and the
loss records. The insurance companies do not dictate how the
vessel should be run; they rely entirely on the expertise of the
captain and the crew.
CHAIR BUNDE thanked Ms. Fabozzi for her testimony. He informed
members that he did not want to address short-term amendments
and he had a strong indication that the warship amendment would
be addressed in another committee of referral after it was run
through Legislative Legal and Research Services. In addition, he
preferred to take up the yacht issue separately and not slow
down the reauthorization of the board.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he was speaking to SB 20, Version 23-
LS0274\D.
CHAIR BUNDE replied that was correct.
SENATOR SEEKINS made a motion to move SB 20 from committee with
individual recommendations.
CHAIR BUNDE asked for the roll to be called.
Senators Davis, French, Seekins, and Bunde voted in favor and SB
20 passed from committee.
CHAIR BUNDE adjourned the meeting at 2:12 p.m.
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