Petition For Rent Control Passes Signature Count, Goes to Council

A petition for rent control in Cambridge has, by official count, more than enough signatures to get onto the City's November 4 ballot.

A total of 5052 voters (about 12 per cent of the City's registered voters) signed the petition, according to the City's official signature count completed last weekend. The petition, sponsored by the Cambridge Rent Control Referendum, needed only 3290 signatures (eight per cent of the voters) to get on the ballot.

Acting City Clerk Paul Healy certified the results of the signatures count yesterday, and has sent the petition to the City Council which now has 20 days either to accept it without amendments or put it up to the voters' decision in November.

The council is now in its summer recess and a special meeting will have to be called to act upon the rent control petition. Yesterday, there was speculation that a meeting might be called for later this week.

Since Mayor Walter J. Sullivan is out of Cambridge, calling a special meeting would be up to Councillor Alfred E. Vellucci, who serves as vice-mayor. Vellucci was not available for comment last night.

Under the proposed ordinance which the petition supports, rents in Cambridge would be be frozen at January, 1968 levels. Increases of up to eight per cent would, however, be allowed to meet rising costs on the approval of a rent control board.

The rent control referendum was initiated last Fall by the radical Peace and Freedom Party.

Although still strongly backed by Peace and Freedom, the rent referendum organization is now at least overtly separate from the party.

Last week, the Cambridge Housing Convention, which had unsuccessfully addressed its own drive for rent control to the City Council supported a "yes" vote vote for rent control in November. The convention emphasized, however, that it was not endorsing the Peace and Freedom Party or its radical politics.