Candidate for City Council At Large: Dionysios (Dion) Kaskarelis
By Ellen Putnam
Photo From Dionysios Kaskarelis
Dionysios Kaskarelis (often known as ‘Dion’) is running for City Council At Large because, he said, “I love Melrose, I am invested in Melrose for the long term, and I want to see the city thrive.”
“I want to use the position of city councilor as a platform to give residents a voice and the ability to shape the future of our city,” he said. “And I believe in the power of government: going back to ancient Greek times, democracy literally translates from demos - people - and kratos - the state. It’s government by the people, for the people.”
Kaskarelis was born in Greece and comes from a foreign service family. He has lived in over a dozen countries across Europe and the U.S. and said, “it opens you up to a world of different cultures, backgrounds, and languages. It gives you the ability to communicate with people who have different opinions and across differences.”
Kaskarelis shared that his academic and professional background “blends diplomacy, finance, and real estate.” He worked for 16 years at the European Investment Bank, where, he said, “I focused on economic development and investment banking, specializing in sovereign financial crises. I held technical and managerial roles on both the funding and lending sides of the institution. I managed complex projects with large budgets that required collaboration with experts in economics, law, risk, engineering, and compliance, as well as working with government officials and state authorities. Notable projects included stabilizing a national economy during a financial crisis and delivering essential infrastructure in a conflict-affected region.”
He is currently the founder and CEO of Access Properties, a real estate investment firm that aims to democratize home ownership. “A very important part of my work is community sense,” he said, “All of my projects ensure community support.”
“Through these experiences,” Kaskarelis said, “I developed transferable skills in collaboration, negotiation, and compromise which, in our current financial challenges, will bring value to the role of city councilor.”
“But it’s not just about the skills one brings,” he went on, “it’s also about caring about the city; and it’s about being a student - wanting to learn how things work and putting in the time. I haven’t been involved with the city in an official role, but I’ve been active in civic matters: I talk to my neighbors, I’ve connected with city councilors, the mayor, and even with our state representatives to advocate for different initiatives - and that’s what motivated me to run for City Council.”
To Kaskarelis, Melrose’s greatest strength is our community. “The moment we moved here, we were embraced by the community,” he reflected. “The children on our street play together all the time, we’ve blocked off the street a couple of times for block parties, everybody gets together for potlucks - to me, that’s what makes Melrose feel like home. And our biggest strength is our ability to get together and do what we set our minds to.”
But, he observed, “the city’s finances are on everybody’s mind, and it’s unfortunate that we’re all feeling the pressure on it.” There, Kaskarelis hopes that his training in diplomacy can be helpful: “We need to try to find common ground to, hopefully, be able to reach an outcome that represents as many people as possible. You can’t fully include everyone, but we need to find ways to alleviate some of the pressure so no one is completely excluded.”
Photo From Dionysios Kaskarelis
In terms of the city’s current financial challenges, Kaskarelis reflected, “by law, the budget must be balanced at the end of the year. And the budget itself is inflexible, so there is no margin - there is no additional amount that we have to play around with.”
“And most importantly,” he said, “the 2.5% increase we are allowed every year in our tax levy is not sufficient because it is lower than inflation - by default, you’re always going to be behind. So what can we do? Either we cut our costs, which brought, in my view, catastrophic outcomes last year - and I can’t imagine what a third year of cuts would look like - or we increase our revenues.”
“And how can we increase our revenues?” Kaskarelis went on. “We could get help from the state - but unfortunately, our state representatives recently discussed that, and Melrose can’t expect to get much from them. So we have to look for other options.”
“Business growth is something we should look into,” he said, “We can help existing businesses grow and bring in new businesses. Development will help, although we have to do it in a controlled and strategic way that includes residents’ views and doesn’t just plow through neighborhoods.”
Kaskarelis has been involved in neighborhood advocacy around new development in the Highlands area, and he would also focus on collaborating with residents to manage the impacts of development in the city as a whole. “We simply need more housing to stabilize prices that have become unaffordable for too many families,” he said. “We also need a diversified housing mix with expansion in affordable housing coupled with fair, transparent access to financing — so that all people, regardless of background or income, have a real chance to buy a home and build equity here.”
“Finally,” he went on, “more housing also means a broader tax base, which can help reduce the burden on existing homeowners while strengthening city finances. Currently, over 90% of our revenue comes from households, and in my view, that is extremely high and unsustainable going forward. If you compare us to Burlington, which has only 30% of its tax revenue coming from residents but conversely has a huge amount of development, that shows the possible range — between 30% and 90% — so I feel we may have some opportunity to reduce some of our reliance on residential taxes.”
“You can look at issues through any of a number of different lenses,” Kaskarelis continued, “but to maximize the opportunity to generate revenue, I believe we have to look at all of the issues that come before the City Council from a finance lens.”
When it comes to the override questions that will be on the ballot, Kaskarelis said that he will be voting ‘Yes’ on all three questions. “People come to Melrose because of the strength of its schools, public services, and infrastructure,” he said, “and to now scale down these areas would be catastrophic for the city, for the residents, for families; and it would be catastrophic for people who don’t necessarily use those services all the time because home values are also related to amenities.”
“Last year, we saw what happened with the cuts the city had to make,” he went on. “The $6 million they had to cut led to a horrifying loss of jobs and educational opportunities. I worry tremendously about what is going to happen if the override vote fails, and I hope that people understand what’s at stake and how important this vote is.”
“If an override passes,” he went on, “I would focus on how we manage transparency and inclusiveness going forward - because I feel that initiatives such as the mayor’s financial task force and Ward 7 City Councilor Devin Romanul’s budget questionnaire have both been successful in getting people more involved. I want to build further on that inclusiveness and transparency - I would propose setting up a permanent commission that deals with financial issues and could possibly become a larger platform for people and businesses to become involved with the city’s finances on a regular basis.”
“I have heard that this is an idea that was considered in the past and dismissed because it didn’t work,” Kaskarelis added, “but I believe that good ideas should always be held on to - sometimes they fail because they are premature. Timing is everything in politics. Revisiting ideas at the right time is how we move forward. I think the time is right, now.”
Photo From Dionysios Kaskarelis
“If no override passes,” he continued, “that would be a very challenging time for our community and for the City Council, because the city is going to have to make some very difficult decisions. In that situation, I would make schools my top priority.”
“As we wouldn’t be able to rely on additional public funding,” Kaskarelis went on, “we’d have to think outside the box, explore some public-private partnerships, to generate additional revenue. But it would be challenging to do, given the high-pressure environment and the need for speed — trying to stabilize our finances in that environment would be like trying to catch a falling knife.”
In terms of the work of legislating on the City Council, Kaskarelis said that he woud “use the skills of diplomacy, collaboration, negotiation, and compromise to work toward finding common ground.”
“First,” he said, “I would learn about the issue. I would do my research, put in the time to connect with people from around the city and hear their views, and use that to try to form an opinion - not my own, but based on my constituents’ views - and bring that to the City Council to connect with everyone else who has formed opinions from their constituents, and use that to establish common ground.”
“When communication stops is when bad things happen,” Kaskarelis reflected. “We’ve seen this on a national level. At the end of the day, communication is my top priority. I want to always be open to speak to anyone about anything, and I hope they feel comfortable to do that - otherwise, we’re not going to get anywhere. If I sit at the table with a fixed position and I’m not willing to give any ground, there’s no point - it’s just going to be a yelling match.”
“There have been a number of very difficult conversations in the City Council, which is to be expected” he went on, “I do feel that everything is relevant and should be discussed — whether or not it’s deserving of legislation is a technical matter, and at the end of the day, everyone should feel represented on the City Council.”
Kaskarelis became a U.S. citizen on July 31st. He is fluent in Greek and English, and conversational in Italian and French. He and his wife have an almost-two-year-old son and a senior rescue dog. He is a basketball fan and enjoys going to the YMCA, walking around Melrose, and spending time by the sea, especially Cape Ann.
