Opinion: Dedham Residents Support William Ralph For Selectmen

The following is a letter to the editor from a group of eight Dedham residents supporting William Ralph for one of the two open selectmen seats. The Dedham town election is Saturday, April 13.

How is it that barely a few of years ago we had 16 million dollars in free cash, we built Legacy Place, the Jefferson and Avalon Apartments and Hebrew Senior Life and a couple of other commercial developments, which combined, added over 10 million dollars to our tax revenue each year, we adopted a hotel/motel surcharge tax bringing in millions of dollars a year and yet our taxes keep going up? Why is the Robin Reyes Fund broke and why we are transferring money into the Major Capital Facilities Stabilization Fund to the tune of millions of dollars over the foreseeable future? Anyone who watched the Dedham TV Conversations with the Candidates knows the answers to these questions because they were all answered by William Ralph.

We have great candidates for Selectman this year and two open seats on the Board. Whoever you vote for, one of them must be William Ralph. We need the skill set he brings to the Board to help us through what looks to be some extremely challenging consequences of past decisions. Has it occurred to anyone that barely a year after Bill started working for the Town, a AAA Bond Rating was achieved after others tried for years and were unsuccessful? What did he do differently? He tackled the problem head on, he identified the issues and made recommendations on correcting them. Bill ran the finance department when the Treasurer Collector passed away, when the Finance Director passed away and when the Town Manager left to take a position in another town. An independent auditor pointed out that when Bill was in complete control was the only time the Collector’s Office balanced.

This year we can elect someone who has the financial knowledge desperately needed and a track record of getting things done.

Please vote for William Ralph on April 13th.

Rose and Eugene Favret

Michael Podolski

Lloyd and Rita Mae Cushman

Randall Gleason

Joanne O’Meara

Carol O’ Brien