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Thursday, March 28, 2024

That state has provided documentation suggesting it was the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, not itself, that was confused over the board member it appoints.

Barry Zevin was appointed by the state to help oversee Kendall Square changes as its board member at the authority (the other four are appointed by Cambridge officials) and notified in a Sept. 17, 2009, letter, as well as given a certificate of appointment. Then-city clerk Margaret Drury swore Zevin in on Oct. 23, 2009, and told the state so in a letter dated four days later.

The state also provided letters dated Sept. 17, 2009, showing notification to Jacqueline S. Sullivan, who had been serving as chairwoman of the board despite her term having expired Nov. 14, 2004, and to the authority’s executive director, Joseph Tulimieri. A certified document from Tulimieri and the authority, though, showed Sullivan’s term running through Nov. 14, 2009, and Sullivan said last week that she had not known she was replaced.

“Adherence to bylaws is monitored on a local level,” said the specialist, Mary-Leah Assad, explaining that responsibility for how the authority follows its rules falls to the city solicitor’s office, run at the time by Don Drisdell. Since Drisdell retired Jan. 20, the Law Department is headed by Acting City Solicitor Nancy E. Glowa.

A message was left Glowa on Thursday asking whether any review of authority actions is under way or planned.

The letter to Tulimieri concerning Zevin’s appointment, sent Thursday by a communications specialist at the state Department of Housing and Community Development, is shown below.