City Council Picks Vellucci as Mayor

The conservative Independent faction of the City Council claimed two major victories over the liberal Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) last night, electing Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci as mayor and taking long-awaited steps toward weakening the city's controversial ordinance prohibiting the conversion of rent-controlled housing to condominiums.

Vellucci received unanimous support from his colleagues but indicated in his acceptance speech that a private overture from the four other Independents broke the mayoral stalemate that began on the current council's inauguration.

Although both Vellucci and Leonard J. Russell, elected vice mayor for the second consecutive term, called for unanimity to help solve the city's persistent financial and housing woes, the council split sharply on its only significant action in the abbreviated meeting--an order that prohibits the city administration from hiring attorneys to defend a portion of Cambridge's anti-condominium conversion ordinance.

Vellucci's vote gave the Independents a 5.4 decision blocking the city manager from eventually hiring counsel to appeal a decision by Third District Court Judge Arthur Sherman. The new mayor said he had made up his mind on the issue about a month ago.

In a preliminary finding. Sherman has indicated that he will most likely strike down the section of the city's housing ordinance that prohibits tenants who moved into rent control housing after Aug 10, 1979, from occupying their homes as condominium without special permits from the rent control board.

About 1000 units, or 5 percent of the city's total rent control housing, would be affected by Sherman's ruling and the council's move to block an appeal by the city manager and the rent board.

City Manager Robert W. Healy had indicated that he planned to hire attorney to contest Sherman's order. Sherman has scheduled another bearing in the case of Poldnak's Cambridge Rent Control Board for tomorrow.

"It's an Independent victory." Councilor Walter J. Sullivan said after the meeting Sullivan said he had engineered a Sunday reconciliation among the other Independents--Russell. Thomas W. Danehy and Daniel J. Clinton--and called Vellucci later in the day

"I though we had to do something to break the deadlock." Walter Sullivan said. He denied that a deal had been struck among the four Independents, who repeatedly sought to weaken the anti-conversion ordinance, and Vellucci, who usually supports the CCA on housing issues but who stated consistently since the November election that he was a candidate for mayor.

At a council meeting two weeks ago. Vellucci made an emotional appeal to his fellow Independents for support in the mayor's race. Although he had been elected mayor twice before in his 28 years on the council, he said he had never, before received unanimous backing from his Independent colleagues.

As every new council takes office, it selects a mayor and vice mayor from among its members. The mayor chairs council meetings and also sits on the school committee.

CCA Councilor David Sullivan, one of the strongest supporters of the city's strict housing policies, said that the council's decision to block an appeal "struck me as particularly cowardly and irrational" and worried that it may set a precedent for similar maneuvers around the city's housing codes in the future.

He said that if a majority of the council wanted to water down the 1979 rent-control ordinance, it would have made more sense to pass an amendment to the law, or at least to decide unequivocally not to appeal Sherman's ruling.

But the Independent strategy leaves open the possibility that Healy could ask one of the city's own part-time lawyers to defend the ordinance, said David Sullivan, who immediately after last night's meeting filed a motion for reconsideration of the 5-4 vote.

The decision will not take effect until the councilors act on the reconsideration move.

"It is much easier to vote not to enforce a law than to change it," David Sullivan said. He added that, in making the vote for Vellucci unanimous. "The four of us [CCA members] made the best decision we could make under the circumstances.

Vellucci ran for council last year, not only s part of the Independents" "chain," but also on a tenants' slate of candidates that endorsed rent control.

He reaffirmed his belief in rent control last night, but called for a study that would recommend significant changes to improve the system's efficiency. Vellucci also noted that the had angered members of his family as well as tenants seeking permission to purchase and occupy their rent-controlled apartments as condominiums because of his record on rent control and condominium conversion.CrimsonElizabeth HarpelOn a unanimous vote last night, Cambridge city councilors elected Leonard J. Russell as vice mayor for a two-year term. Russell, an Independent councilor from North Cambridge, has been a consistent critic of the rent control board and the city's strict guidelines prohibiting condominium conversion.