GALTEX Pilot Commission Schedules Next Hearing

Latest GALTEX pilot rate increase application to be discussed on November 2nd at 0930 hours.

The Board of Pilotage Commissioners, ports of Galveston County, has scheduled a hearing on the Galtex Pilots’ rate increase application for November 2, 2009 at 0930 hours. In doing so, the Commission also overruled objections from the cruise industry to abate further hearings until the judicial review of previous proceedings has been completed.

Local pilots have been asked to produce their witness list and objectors to produce their witness list by October 22, 2009. Objections and requests for procedural matters are due by October 26, 2009. The GalTex Pilots also submitted their financial records for inspection.

Numerous objections to the latest request for a rate increase in Galveston have been filed. Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises Line and the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association has filed an objection to the proposed GalTex Pilotage increases (with particular concern over the revived requirement for two pilots on some cruise ships) and requested that further proceedings be abated until resolution of their Petition of Judicial Review has been resolved. They have been joined in that effort by the Port of Texas City and the West Gulf Maritime Association (WGMA).

The new request comes less than one month after the pilots withdrew their previous application after last summer’s acrimonious and lengthy meetings with stakeholders and the Pilot commissioners. Those talks, which initially appeared to yield a rate increase – although not the one pilots or industry was hoping for – proved fruitless when the pilots abruptly withdrew their request with little notice or explanation. The withdrawal came just as the Board of Pilot commissioners was to vote on a 5 percent rate increase.