Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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or may not like football its purpose was not to shed blood or to knock out the other person. He circulated pictures of local cage fights that he printed from Mr. Georgianna’s Web site. Councilor Kelly approved of the standards that were brought forward in testimony, but he expressed some concern because they were proposals for self-regulation. He said if the City would not consider a ban, the council needed to look at how the City would be an enforcer of the regulations and from where this enforcement would be funded. He thought one option for funding would be a business license-type fee. He suggested the council convene another work session on the issue. Councilor Poling found it interesting that the proposed wording in the AIS indicated that the ordinance would ban extreme fighting for which no rules had been established and enforced. He felt some of the proposals in Mr. Georgianna’s documentation covered those points. He suggested that one option would be to work with Mr. Hagen and also Brad Darcy, a member of the State Boxing and Wrestling Commission in order to get a better sense of the regulations. Additionally, he suggested asking Intergovernmental Relations Manager Jason Heuser to contact the State and determine how much progress had been made in its process to better regulate this type of fighting. He thought it possible to establish Eugene’s own criteria in the interim. While he had no desire to attend either a boxing or MMA match, he did not wish to ban this type of sport. He noted that he had been injured playing football, basketball, and baseball. Councilor Pryor echoed the comments of Councilor Poling. He said in looking at the proposed ordinance it seemed that it sought to ban unregulated amateur fighting. In parsing out the varying levels of the sport, he pointed out that there was professional MMA fighting, which appeared to soon be regulated by the State just as boxing is, the amateur MMA fighting, which was proposed to include some regulations and guidelines, and the unregulated uncontrolled extreme fighting. He felt that regulation was a way to bring a level of safety into fighting for the sport and he supported further exploration of the issue. While he did not have a problem with prohibiting extreme fighting, he wanted more information about the kind of regulation, the procedures and mechanisms for regulation, and the interaction with State regulations. Councilor Kelly pointed out that the pictures he passed out were from one of the fights that had been held under the governance of the rules that Mr. Georgianna presented. While he applauded the idea behind the regulations, he felt that without governmental enforcement it was hard to rely on those rules. He also wanted staff to clarify the issue of medical coverage. He agreed with Councilor Ortiz that, at a minimum, a definitive answer was needed as to who would be responsible for a fighter who was catastrophically injured. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 11, 2006 Page 5 Regular Meeting