Rent Board Plans No Ethics Review Of Two Members

Cambridge Rent Control Board officials said yesterday that the board has no plans for reviewing two of its members charged last month with violating Massachusetts conflict-of-interest laws.

Jonathan K. Walters '71, a third-year Law School student and Harvard Legal Aid Bureau member active in local rent-control issues, told a public hearing audience of 200 people November 21 that board members Alfred Cohn and Paul Watkins own rental properties in Cambridge and therefore have "a direct pecuniary interest" in the board's decisions.

Officials of the rent-reviewing body said yesterday, however, that they anticipate no action on Walters's charges.

Board member George Waldstein said that the rent board has "no power to review the city manager's appointments and nobody has taken action to do anything."

Robert Snyder, hearing examiner for the board, said that "everyone up to the assistant to the director was unaware of the charges brought against the two board members." The two board members are "from what I know" not planning to resign, Snyder added.

Further public meetings for the board's deliberations on increasing the rents in Cambridge will be held December 11 and 16. "We have already heard from the public and the tenants, now it is time for the board's deliberations," Waldstein said.

A new member of the board, Joyce London, was appointed by City Manager James L. Sullivan November 25.