GalTex Pilot Rate Request Update

Temporary Restraining Order prevents the Galveston County Board of Pilot Commissioners from holding any rate hearings for 14 days.

The Port of Galveston and Galveston Port Facilities Corporation have been granted a Temporary Restraining Order preventing The Galveston County Board of Pilot Commissioners from holding any rate hearings for 14 days. A hearing to show cause why a Temporary Injunction should not be issued is scheduled for November 23, 2009.

The Board of Commissioners of Pilots for the Ports of Galveston County had previously cancelled the meeting scheduled for Monday, November 2 to continue a public hearing on new rate adjustments requested by the Galveston-Texas City Pilots. In an email notice to stakeholders and pilots, Sally Prill, secretary of the commission, announced the cancellation "because of the illness of the chairman, Vandy Anderson". No alternate date for the meeting has been announced. The ongoing battle over pilot rates in Galveston has been raging since this summer.

The latest request came 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.

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).