Charter captains who load passengers at Mount Pleasant’s public docks and landings may soon need a town business license, proof of insurance and a signed promise to cover the town if something goes wrong.

Mount Pleasant Town Council scheduled a final vote on the ordinance for its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Nov. 10, according to the town’s amended agenda. The agenda was changed to show the item is up for final reading, not first reading. No result had been reported as of 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The draft ordinance says it takes effect immediately upon final reading.

What the ordinance requires

The proposal amends Section 130.03 of the town code, which covers boat landings, according to the draft posted with the agenda. It applies to any charter boat doing commercial business from a town boat landing or dock, including launching the vessel and loading or unloading passengers.

Under the draft, those operators would have to:

  • Get a town business license and pay the annual license tax.
  • Keep the original license on the captain or aboard the vessel, ready for inspection by town agents.
  • Carry liability insurance of at least $1 million per incident and $500,000 in property damage liability per incident, with a certificate of insurance filed with the business license application.
  • Sign a written agreement to indemnify and hold harmless the town, its officers, agents and employees from claims over injuries, deaths or property damage tied to the vessel’s operations.

The Mount Pleasant Police Department would enforce the rules, the draft says.

The ordinance’s preamble says illegal passenger vessel operations, including illegal bareboat charters, “continue to be a serious issue on the waterways in the Charleston area.” It says illegal charters “undermine lawful commercial vessel operators who comply with existing laws and business regulations” of the town.

Why the town is using its business license

Mount Pleasant has little power to regulate boats themselves. At an Oct. 5 meeting of council’s Police, Judicial and Legal Committee, town legal counsel Brent Leary said state law generally bars local governments from regulating watercraft, with limited exceptions, so the town’s main enforcement tool is its business license authority, according to the committee’s minutes.

Coast Guard credentials and vessel inspections remain the job of state and federal authorities, Leary told the committee. The proposal arose from a discussion of illegal charter operations “particularly on Shem Creek,” the minutes say.

Mayor Will Haynie told the committee there are reportedly dozens of boats advertising charter services on Shem Creek and very few with a valid business license, according to the minutes. The committee voted unanimously to send the changes to full council.

Councilmember Jake Rambo told WCSC Live 5 that unlicensed operators are limiting dock access for licensed businesses and the public.

“Over the past few years, there’s been a proliferation of unlicensed charter boats, uh, that are operating using town docks, using town facilities,” Rambo said. He added that this “limits access on those docks to our general public and our taxpayers who are funding it.”

Rambo said the town would treat charters like any other business. “If you open a business in town, you have to have a business license,” he told the station.

A drowning and a federal crackdown

The proposal has the backing of the family of James Jerald “JJ” Broughton, who drowned in August while a paying passenger on an unlicensed charter boat in the Charleston area, Live 5 reported.

Broughton’s wife, Shameka Robinson, sent a letter supporting the changes through attorney Gedney M. Howe IV, the station reported. Howe wrote that the operator ran the business from a gated marina with card-access entry but had never registered it with the state.

“Requiring a business license and liability insurance is a meaningful first step, and the family urges the Town to adopt it,” Howe wrote, according to Live 5.

WCIV ABC News 4 reported that the investigation into Broughton’s death remains ongoing.

Coast Guard crews have stopped more than 100 boats without proper equipment or licensing across the Southeast since the start of 2026, and two people have died in recreational boating accidents in Mount Pleasant this year, Live 5 reported.

What licensed operators say

Michael Fiem, identified by Live 5 as owner and captain of Palmetto Breeze Sailing Charters and Captain Cocktail Cruises, told Live 5 he supports the ordinance.

“A company like ours, we have to have million-dollar policies, with a triple A rated insurance company,” Fiem said. He said his company’s captains are CPR and lifeguard trained and go through a drug consortium program.

Fiem said insurance protects passengers’ families. “If companies aren’t properly insured and God forbid something very bad happens and they’re not covered properly then the family of the people is going to suffer,” he told the station.

The town already bars anyone from blocking boat landings or interfering with the launching or loading of boats, and that rule stays in the amended section, the draft shows.

The ordinance would not change who licenses captains or inspects vessels. It would give town police a paperwork check at the docks Mount Pleasant owns.