I am copying this over from the Abu Dhabi news page, which posted it from a USKBA email newsletter.

For those who don't understand what an Article 78 proceeding is, I will post some information about it in my second post.

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To all USKBA Promoters:

As most of you may already know, we (the USKBA) have begun laying the foundation of a possible Article 78 proceeding against the State of New York and The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC). This proceeding is in regards to the NYSAC ruling on not allowing the USKBA to sanction professional martial arts/kickboxing in New York State. The 'foundation' has begun on August 4, 2005 and will last until December 29, 2005, or sooner. Since our goal is to have the USKBA added to the list of 'approved' sanctioning organizations, should the NYSAC comply with our request and add the USKBA to the 'approved list', we are prepared to cease the Article 78 proceeding.

What does that mean to all our USKBA New York Promoters? As we are working the means to have the USKBA added to the 'approved list', the decision has been made to not continue the current arrangement in New York of having the USKBA sanction the amateur bouts of a Pro-Am event and having the 'approved' organization sanction the professional bout of a Pro-Am event. This arrangement has caused much confusion as to the responsibility and handling of amateur bouts of a jointly-sanctioned Pro-Am event. In addition, this arrangement gave no reason for the NYSAC to even consider adding the USKBA to its list of 'approved' sanctioning organizations. We were asked by the Commission to wait. We have waited for three years with nothing to show for it. The USKBA has not been added to the list and nothing has changed. If this decision to no longer sanction or be involved with Pro-Am events under this arrangement in New York, causes any hardships to promoters...good. Let the NYSAC know. Under current NYSAC rules, they have created a monopoly when it comes to sanctioning professional martial arts/kickboxing events. No promoter has the freedom of choice to decide which organization they want to use to sanction their events. This is America. Everyone should have the freedom of choice. This is your time to decide on freedom of choice or to be told what to do.

If you want to decide on freedom of choice, we ask that you write all the NYSAC Commissioners and the NYSAC General Counsel to voice your opinion. If you want to decide on being told that you can only work with one organization, not necessarily of your choosing, then do nothing. The choice is yours.

NYSAC Commissioners and General Counsel can be contacted at:

Honorable Ronald Scott Stevens
Commissioner
New York State Athletic Commission
123 William Street, 20th Floor
New York NY 10038

Honorable Marc Cornstein
Commissioner
New York State Athletic Commission
123 William Street, 20th Floor
New York NY 10038

Honorable Judge Jerome Becker
Commissioner
New York State Athletic Commission
123 William Street, 20th Floor
New York NY 10038

Mr. Hugo Spindola, Esq.
General Counsel
New York State Athletic Commission
123 William Street, 20th Floor
New York NY 10038


I thank you for this time and hope you can understand that we cannot sit by and watch 8 years of working our sports go down the drain. As you all know, we have lost many fighters, champions and clubs during the past three years that the USKBA has been banned from sanctioning professional martial arts/ kickboxing in New York State. Let's work together to help build our sports again. It can be done... with your help. The quicker we move on this, the quicker we can get it resolved.

Please feel free to pass this along to any, and all, studios you feel would be willing to support the effort to have more than one sanctioning body in New York.
* We will honor our agreement to sanction the amateur bouts of two Pro-Am events already scheduled in 2005 (September 23, 2005 / Combat at the Capitale and November 18, 2005 / Superfights-Friday Night Fights). The agreement is for these two events ONLY.

Respectfully,

Paul Rosner, President
USKBA - United States Kickboxing Association
USKBA ACTION SPORTS
WSA - World Sportfighting Association
www.uskba.com
www.worldsportfighting.com
corp@uskba.com

If you haven't been following the problems in New York with Kickboxing promotions, here is some reading that you could catch up on.

NY State Shuts Down Another Show
A Rally Against the NYS Athletic Commission
NYS Athletic Commission has come to an Agreement?
More NYS Gossip
Make San Shou Legal in NYC
NY Confused About Its Law
Struggle Against NYS Law
NY Now A Police State
Is the NYSAC Still Controlling Kickboxing in NY?
More NY News

Basically put, the NY Athletic Commission in 2002 suddenly decided to start interpreting the laws differently than they had previously. The new intepretations suddenly made KB, MMA and basically anything other than Boxing illegal in NY. The result was that a lot of events were shut down. The first attempt to get around this was to put on "Amateur" events so that the athletic commission no longer applies. The next step was to talk with the NYSAC to figure out how promoters and sanctioning orgs in NY could legally put on professional shows. The NYSAC had a list of accepted sanctioning organizations, which primarily were "Karate" or traditional martial arts organizations. Some promoters were able to promote under the WKA banner because WKA was on the list. The USKBA has been trying to get on the list, but it has failed and there is no legal explanation as to why any of this is happening.

The obvious conclusion is that the athletic commission is corrupt and wants to maintain Boxing's top spot of combat sports in New York.

More on Article 78 proceedings in my next post.

Article 78- What is it?

From the website Article78.com :

"An Article 78 is a type of lawsuit ... Generally, Article 78 proceedings are used to challenge action (or inaction) by agencies and officers of state and local government. Sometime even the actions of private corporations are subject to Article 78 review. If you feel that an agency has screwed up your administrative case, filing an Article 78 will bring your case into a New York Supreme Court. There, a judge will review your administrative case, scrutinize the agency's actions and decisions, and if necessary reverse an agency's decision."

Read more about Article 78 filings here

The first post of this topic is a message sent to USKBA representatives to let them know that the USKBA is preparing for an Article78 proceeding. The actual proceeding hasn't been filed yet (as far as I can tell).

I think it's about time that something proactive was done regarding this problem in New York. I commend the USKBA for taking action.

"I think it's about time that something proactive was done regarding this problem in New York. I commend the USKBA for taking action."

TTT

Some more background on this....

A year ago, there was a two full page story on corruption and waste in the NYSAC. The NYSAC is paid close to one million dollars of tax payer money each year yet generate less than 5% of that in revenue back to the state. Hugo Spindola, legal council, is paid $98,000 yet can't seem to even answer his email regarding issues that are clearly his responsibility to answer, ie boxing licencing and gym license requirements. I certainly wish I was paid that much to do NOTHING.

As his been noted before, the law as they are "interpreting" it is RACIST. It excludes entire martial arts traditions from legally taking place in the state (Chinese, Brazilian, Russian, French, Philipino, and Vietnamese at just a quick glance!)

We've been lied to and stalled for three years, it's finally time to stand up!

ttt