Dedham Selectmen candidates debate taxes plan

Dedham’s new meals tax emerged as the sharpest area of disagreement at a pre-election candidates forum this week, with challenger Derek Moulton saying he opposed it “because there is no plan in place” for the money. He faulted Selectmen Carmen DelloIacono and Michael Butler for not coming up with a priority list of buildings to be replaced with the revenue.

DelloIacono replied that the $53,000 generated thus far would be put into the major capital facilities stabilization fund, calling that “a dead-set plan for the future of our town – future buildings, future police, future senior center, fire station. That’s exactly what it’s meant to do.”

His fellow incumbent, Butler, said his “position on the meals tax has been clear from the very beginning: I supported it as long as we knew we would put it toward construction in new buildings. I would not support it, if any of it, if one dime of it, was diverted to operating expense.”

DelloIacono is running for a third term on the Board of Selectmen, and current chairman Butler is going for his second. Moulton, a Finance Committee member since 2007, and Robert Desmond, a 14-year member of the Board of Library Trustees, will challenge them in Saturday’s election. Two of the four will win three-year terms.

The selectmen candidates spent just over an hour on stage at Dedham Middle School Tuesday night, discussing the state of the town’s fields, the Dedham Square improvement project, and the perennial question of a senior center, among other issues.

The great tax debate

Dedham upped its meals tax from 6.25 percent to 7 percent on Jan. 1, with the extra money to come back to the town, and be used according to voters at Town Meeting.

Moulton said the money is being collected “with a broad definition of what it would be used for,” but he thinks “Dedham residents should have a better idea of where their money will be going and what it will be used for before it is just taken from them.”

“I don’t think it’s that difficult to have a plan in place with this. And I think that the two incumbents that I’m running against, they’ll both tell you that they had pushed for this meals tax increase for a few years. But to me, why couldn’t we prioritize a list of buildings that we need in those few years?” Moulton said. “It just goes to show that we can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. And we should expect more from our town government.”

“We still don’t know how that money will be spent,” he reiterated, “and we are no further along on that plan today than we were in November when that article passed at Special Town Meeting.”

Desmond said he favored the tax, and that if elected he would immediately ask the town administrator to gather the Building, Planning and Construction Committee “and put together that plan. It can’t be difficult. Put all the buildings in town together and prioritize them.”

DelloIacono, who is also a Building, Planning and Construction Committee member, said “there is a plan. We have been working on it…Things like this just don’t happen overnight.”

He emphasized, “Town Meeting has the say of where it goes, how it gets spent, or even what it looks like. That is the protection that’s on that money.”

While “everyone else that has implemented this revenue stream is using it to offset their budgets,” DelloIacono said, Dedham is “looking forward” by planning to devote the money to new buildings. “This is an idea that I had brought to the board three and a half years ago, and it has finally come to fruition. It is a plan.”

Just before Moulton’s critique, Butler referred to the pitch he made in October to set aside the new revenues from the meals tax and the hotel tax (which went up from 4 to 6 percent Jan. 1) to help pay for new town buildings.

The meals tax receipts are adding up to about $300,000 per year, but it will take years before enough accumulates to pay for a new building, Butler said.

Like DelloIacono, he reiterated that none of the money can be spent without Town Meeting’s approval – but said he hoped that body would move the money into the special stabilization fund for new buildings or major renovations of existing ones. For the latter, he clarified, “major renovations would be something like a couple of new wings at the high school, probably something in excess of 50 percent of the replacement value of the building.” 

Drawing from experience

In his opening statement, DelloIacono, who has four kids in the town’s schools, said, “My experience growing up in Dedham is one that I want my children to have, and hopefully their children. As a member of your Board of Selectmen, I will ensure that Dedham continues to move forward in a direction that we can all be proud of.”

Butler, who was born and raised in Dedham, said “when you elected me three years ago, I told you I would focus on some very unglamorous issues – investing in infrastructure, planning for the longer term, and improving accountability through openness and transparency. I have done just that.”

He pointed to the 30 miles of town roads that have been upgraded or rebuilt during the past three years, the approval of a new Avery School and renovated high school athletic complex that he worked for as vice chairman of the School Building Rehabilitation Committee, and how he “initiated the new format that the Board of Selectmen uses to document its goals, available on the town Web site. Residents can read that document and hold us accountable.”

Desmond said he is running for many reasons, communication chief among them.

“If you have no communication, then you end up with stagnant government,” said the longtime library trustee, who previously ran for selectman in 2006. “Number two, we need more transparency. I think this is really important, to let the people and the taxpayers know what’s going on.”

Moulton said that while on the Finance Committee he has “voted in favor of articles that have made Dedham a cleaner and safer place, against ones that only benefit selected areas of town, in favor of capital projects that satisfy our town’s long-term needs at a reasonable cost, and against ones that while satisfying a need, such as the senior center, I voted against that because it had a price tag much larger than the town’s taxpayers can afford.”

He said that as a selectman his primary focus would be “the development of a fiscally responsible long-range infrastructure plan that will ensure residents know in advance where, and how, their tax dollars are going to be spent.”

Dedham’s three most important needs are police and fire stations and a senior center, Moulton added later.

Board of Library Trustees

The Dedham Educational Partnership’s annual candidates night also included appearances by several School Committee and Parks and Recreation Commission contenders who are unopposed.

Besides the selectmen’s race, the only other contest is for the Board of Library Trustees, where incumbent Joseph D’Amico and write-in candidates Robin Carew and Michael Chalifoux are vying for two spots.

Moderator Daniel Driscoll read a statement from Carew, who was absent due to a recent medical procedure. “I believe my knowledge of the library from my perspective as a past employee can and will be helpful to me in the position as library trustee,” her statement said.

The only library candidate to appear was Chalifoux, who said he is well-prepared to join the board, familiar with the library budget, and has “an understanding and appreciation of the library and its patrons” from the hours he has spent there.

After he realized that a group of people had trouble using the computers, especially seniors, Chalifoux began giving computer classes, which he said have grown.

Chalifoux said his one serious goal is to “make sure the library does not lose its state certification. We are in no real danger of doing that, but that’s the number one thing.”

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.