Letter To The Editor: Why William Ralph Is Running For Selectman

The following letter to the editor is from board of selectmen candidate William Ralph. Letters can be submitted to Dedham Patch Editor Dan Libon at Dan.Libon@patch.com

In 20 years the average tax bill has skyrocketed over 300 percent. Adjusting for inflation, it should be about half of what it is now. We need change.

My name is William Ralph. I am running for Selectman. Born and raised in Oakdale, I now live in Precinct 6. I worked for 12 years on the Dedham Police Department as both a full time and auxiliary officer and 5 years as the Town’s Assistant Finance Director. I am currently a Financial Consultant. My experience includes auditing, fraud and embezzlement investigations for the FDIC, Vice-President of a major regional bank, and Finance Director of various companies. I’ve owned local businesses including Gilbert’s Liquors, Medfield Wine Shoppe, MTS Computer Service and a number of online businesses.

I’m concerned about taxes. My parents now pay in annual taxes, almost as much as they paid for their home. The cost of services has risen disproportionately and is on an unsustainable trajectory. As a member of the Board of Selectmen, I will illustrate what has been happening to Town finances, and help fix it.

I started this process as Assistant Finance Director. I raised serious concerns regarding missing money, inappropriate use of money, and the potential loss of over $3,500,000.00. The risk of losing millions of dollars still exists despite being identified in 2015. Unfortunately, before I was able to address these issues, my position was eliminated. I can no longer help you from the inside, so I’ll do it as a member of the Board of Selectman.

My platform is simple, LOWER taxes, TRANSPARENT decisions, and managerial ACCOUNTABILITY for OUR money. We’ve had artificial reductions in the tax rate but taxes are still rising! Contrary to what we have been told, it is possible to reduce the amount of money we pay in property taxes. I understand what has been happening and am in a unique position to address these issues.

We’ve all heard it said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The choice is yours. You can continue to elect the same people with the same result or you can be part of the process that produces real, positive, sustainable change. It’s time we made some changes. It’s time we saw some results. I urge you to vote for me, William J. Ralph, on April 14.

Find out more at www.dedhamsolutions.com

Qualifications:

William J. Ralph has over 30 years of finance experience including:

• Five Years as Assistant Finance Director for the Town of Dedham
• Auditing, Fraud and Embezzlement Investigations for the FDIC
• Credit Review for Large Commercial Banks
• Finance Director for Various Organizations
• Certificate in Financial Statement Analysis from the American Bankers Association
• Criminal Investigations and Community Patrol as a Dedham Police Officer
• Local Business Owner

William J. Ralph worked closely with our senior citizens and taxpayers while assigned to the positions of Assistant Tax Collector and Interim Tax Collector for the Town. He recommended and implemented numerous fraud controls for the Finance Department. Bill will bring much needed fiscal oversight to our Board of Selectmen.