Agenda Packets - 2009/03/02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No. 03 Type of Business: Work Session Date: March 2, 2009 City Administrator Review _______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Desaree Crane, Assistant City Clerk-Administrator Item Title/Subject: Ultimate Fighting Ordinance Review Background: On June 23, 2008, the City Council approved Ordinance 807, which prohibited ultimate fighting events in Mounds View. Since the approval of Ordinance 807, Staff has received several phone calls from a few City Council Members on kickboxing events that have been held at The Mermaid and Robert’s Sports Bar and Entertainment. Staff wanted to discuss with the City Council on the intention of this ordinance, and whether the City Council would like to revise this ordinance further. Discussion: Ordinance 807 amends the City Code to ban ultimate fighting events. Exempted from this prohibition are officially sanctioned boxing and wrestling meets or other team sports in which physical contact is incidental to the primary purpose of the game, and contests that are governed and sponsored by schools of martial arts. The Mermaid and Robert’s Sports Bar and Entertainment have recently had kickboxing events at their facility, which were sponsored by a marital arts school in New Brighton called Cellar Kickboxing. Cellar offers adult classes in kickboxing, fitness kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts. They also offer pre-school and youth karate instruction. For more information on Cellar Kickboxing, please review their website at www.cellarkickboxing.com. On February 21, 2009, The Mermaid had a kickboxing event that was sponsored by Cellar Kickboxing. It is staff understanding that this was purely a kickboxing event and not an Ultimate Fighting Event. This event was also sponsored by Cellar Kickboxing. Since this event was sponsored by a martial arts school, The Mermaid was in compliance under the current City Code. The Mermaid will have another event on March 28, 2009, which will also be sponsored by Cellar Kickboxing. However, this event will be a traditional kickboxing event and a Muay Tai boxing event. Traditional kickboxing combines the kicking of karate with the punching of boxing. Points are scored when a punch or kick makes contact above the waist of the opponent. Matches are divided into five two-minute rounds and can be won by knockout or judges’ decision. Competitors wear 12-ounce boxing gloves and foot pads. Muay Tai (originated in Thailand) is very similar to traditional kickboxing; expect in Muay Tai you can use eight points of contact which are the fists, feet, elbows and knees. In traditional kickboxing you can use only four points of contact which are only