Community Leaders Ask City to Suspend Zoning Board Member

Reports that a member of the city's Board of Zoning Appeal (BZA) may have repeatedly violated one of the city's rent control ordinances have spurred several city residents to seek her suspension from the post.

In response to complaints from members of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU), City Manager Robert W. Healy sent a letter to Jacqueline T. Rickard, asking her to explain her activities at 52-54 Fairmont St.

In January, an official of the city's rent control board ruled that Rickard had illegally converted the building from five rent-controlled units into two condominiums and recommended that the board pursue criminal charges against her.

And, in a letter to Healy, CTU Co-Chairs Michael H. Turk and Robert O. Edbrooke charged that Rickard's activity at 52-54 Fairmont was only a small part of a trend, "whereby Ms. Rickard...acquires and moves into a rent controlled property and decontrols it...and moves on to the next property."

"In each case, there are tenants, but they somehow are moved out of the picture, and somehow the property undergoes this major changeover," Turk said yesterday.

The rent control board hearing ruled in January that Rickard had knowingly violated the city's removal permit ordinance, enacted in 1979 to keep landlords from illegally removing apartments from rent control or converting them to condominiums--diminishing the city's stock of rent-controlled housing.

The ruling found that Rickard had renovated and combined several apartments at 52-54 Fairmont St.--eliminating three rent-controlled apartments--without filing for a removal permit.

In addition, the ruling found that Rickard told the property's buyer, Arthur Abbott, that she had illegally converted the property. The board recommended that Abbott and his partner, Victor Balk, be ordered to restore the building to its original state.

Although Rickard was not available for comment yesterday, she testified before the hearing that she knew the building was not exempt from rent control. The Board is expected to rule on the hearing next week.

Supporters of the city's 19-year old rent control ordinance said yesterday that Rickard's activities posed one of the most serious threats to the system that the city has yet seen.

Former Cambridge Civic Association President Jack E. Martinelli said that he believed Rickard had similarly evaded the rent control laws on several other occasions. Referring to the incidents described in the CTU letter, he said "The list could easily be doubled."

The alleged violations are serious enough to warrant temporarily suspending Rickard from the BZA--which reviews requests for exemptions from the city's zoning laws--until the rent control board takes final action, Martinelli said.

Turk and Martinelli pointed to Rickard's connections with City Councillor William H. Walsh as another reason she should be suspended while the city investigates her activities. Walsh, a real estate lawyer, represented Rickard during several property transactions, and prepared a purchase and sale agreement when she sold 52-54 Fairmont.

"This means that a woman who is a private developer, a close associate of a city councillor and a member of one of the city's most powerful boards knowingly and willfully violated the law," said Martinelli.

Walsh said he knew Rickard well, adding that he had loaned her as much as $50,000 in 1985 for other projects. But he said that the loans all occurred before he was elected to the council, but he himself no longer handled Rickard's affairs.

Martinelli said suspending Rickard should be a higher priority than investigating possible criminal charges.

"The BZA case is more important," said Martinelli. "It speaks to a possible improper influence on one of the city's most powerful boards."