SF Bar Pilots Run Into Political Turbulence Since the days of Mark Twain, the San Francisco Bar Pilots have had it good. Thanks to outsized political clout and highly specialized training, this elite cadre, currently numbering 56 ship captains, has enjoyed monopoly control over the San Francisco Bay since 1850. State law requires a bar pilot to guide every large vessel - be it a luxury liner, a billionaire's yacht, aircraft carrier or cargo ship - in, out and around the San Francisco Bay. Most of the ships are docked at the Port of Oakland. For decades the pilots plied the Northern California waters with almost no public scrutiny. That's because they did so largely without major incidents and at no cost to taxpayers. Their salaries and benefits are set by an obscure state commission and paid entirely by ship owners. The state Legislature is tasked with approving the salaries, and routinely gaveled home raises over the years for the pilots with little push back. It helped that the pilots, through their association, contributed more than $100,000 to mostly Democratic candidates and causes every two-year state election cycle. In this photo taken Wednesday April 25, 2012, Capt. Bruce A. Horton, president of the San Francisco Bar Pilots, watches as a tanker passes beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Since the days of Mark Twain, the pilots have had it good. Thanks to political clout and highly specialized training, this cadre of 60 ship captains has for more than a century had control over guiding oil tankers and cargo ships in, out and around the San Francisco Bay. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) Close The annual income of the 55 men and one woman who proudly call themselves San Francisco bar pilots has risen from about $150,000 in 1990 to $451,336 last year for a job one pilot argued in a court fight with the Internal Revenue Service amounts to part-time work - seven days "on" and seven days "off" duty. They fly business class to France every five years for mandatory training and enjoy a pension that is fully funded by ship owners and requires no contributions from them. Then on the foggy morning in November 2007, one of the bar pilots slammed the cargo ship Cosco Busan into the San Francisco Bay Bridge, touching off a massive oil spill that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean and brought the pilots and the commission that oversees them a load of scrutiny. Now, the mariners are running into political turbulence in Sacramento after decades of smooth sailing in the capital. Shipping companies, farmers, state Chamber of Commerce representatives and others are exploiting the new-found political vulnerability to successfully oppose pilot requests for raises while demanding more legislative oversight. The Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun - which licenses and oversees the pilots - operated with virtually no oversight from lawmakers, according to a state audit prompted by the 2007 disaster and released in 2009. The Legislature in 2009 placed the commission under the authority of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency and its entire membership and executive director were replaced. Two bar pilots, two representatives from the shipping industry and three public members now comprise the board. The latest political setback happened Monday when the Assembly transportation committee tabled a pilot-backed bill that would have required owners of ships larger than about 1,150 feet to pay the equivalent of 150 percent of the typical fee to add a second pilot to help guide the large vessel to dock.