Anti-Rent Control Fund Drive Assailed

A committee spearheading the opposition to the rent control charter amendment on the April 1 ballot has been accused of illegally collecting money to finance its efforts. . A local underground newspaper, the'Ann Arbor Sun, claims to have obtained information from the committee, Citizens for Good Housing (CGH), which the paper says shows illegal corporate (donations have been made to the CGH. A spokesman for the committee has denied any wrongdoing, and in turn charged the Sun and the Human Kights Party with "dirty tricks" by stealinjï information from CGH files. The Sun claimed in an issue wïiicb cáme out Friday that the CGH had .collected nearly $35,000 as of the end of February. It also claimed the CGH is; a "front ofganization for locáfíandlords." Following the Sun's announcement of the accusations at a press conference, the HRP, sponsor of the rent control measure, announced it would be turning the information over to the prosecuting attorney and attorney general's offices and would ask for an investigation into the CGH operations. James Brien, who has been. coordinating the CGH efforts, denied the charges and said he knew of no way the Sun or HRP could get the information they had without breaking into the committee's offices and taking it from the files. Workers on the Sun declined to say where they got the information, other than that it carne, from someone within the CGH. But Brien said he knows everyone who has access to the files and does not lieve any of them would pass on the information to the Sun. ; However, in calling the CGH efforts a "scare campaign based on a series of half-truths," the Sun also said the reports it has "have been substantiated by several sources connected within the CGH." Included in the information the Sun released was a list of 62 contributors who allegedly had pledged $34,630 to the anti-rent control campaign. The largest 'contributors listed were McKinley Associates, a property management firm, which reportedly donated $7,045, and J. Ronald Slavik, said to have given $4,450. The list of contributors contained the names of many realty and property management companies, including some that are incorporated. Brien claimed the contributions listed under the management firms, such as McKinley Associates, were actually made by landlords who hire the firms to manage their property. Thus, he said, the money was coming from the property owners and not the management firms. The city ordinance allows corporations to act on behalf of "identified in-' dividuals" in making contributions. The list of contributors, which Sun spokesman David Fenton said was copied as they received it, did not break down any of the totals attributed to the firms. Brien confirmed the accuracy of the list of contributers, saying it was the "base list" the CGH is using to compile a financia] statement which, in accordánce with a new city campaign law, must be filed by Monday. Both the city ordinance and state law forbid corporations to contribute to ther political candidates or ballot propo-l sitions. Brien said the CGH did receivel some corporate contributions but re-I turned them. He also said the committee was careful I not to accept any illegal donations 1 cause of the city law prohibiting 1 rate contributions, which went into affect I Feb. 21. Asked if the CGH had accepted I any such contributions before Feb. 21, I Brien said he "strongly doubted " it. I The Sun claimed the contributions were I solicited before Feb. 21 so as not to come I under the city's new ordinance. Included in the CGH material obtained I and released by the Sun was a budget I taling $57,920 proposed by a local I tising firm to güide the CGH's campaign I against rent control. Both the Sun and I the HRP said this was evidence the CGH I was "buying" the election. Brien acknowledged that a $57,920 I budget was submitted by the advertising I company, but he said the CGH did not I collect enough money to finance that I plan. The total CGH campaign expense is I expected to be around $36,000, he said. Two weeks ago Brien told The News in I a rent control story that more than $5,000 I had been contributed to CGH. When I questioned about his more recent 1 mation that more than $34,000 has been I collected, he said the $5,000 figure 1 sented a "happy medium" between what I was collected and the $85,000 the HRP I had previously claimed the CGH was I ing to use. But he asserted the committee had no I intention of-trying to conceal how much I money it was going to spend. This would CONT'D. ON NEXT PAGE