Duane to Focus on Education, Transparency and Vets Affairs in Council Bid

Former state Assemblyman John Duane said he believes his years of living in northeast Queens and getting to know the key issues in its communities would make him the ideal candidate to replace Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone.

Duane, who was the state Assembly member for the district in 1983 and 1984, said the top issues on which he will focus in his campaign are education, veterans’ rights, integrity and transparency and other local quality of life issues, such as funding for senior centers and libraries.

Duane, whose brother is former state Sen. Tom Duane, will face off in the Democratic primary against Flushing attorney Paul Vallone, former Halloran chief of staff Chrissy Voskerichian, longtime community activist Paul Graziano and Austin Shafran, who previously worked for Empire State Development. Douglaston attorney Dennis Saffran is the race’s sole Republican.

Duane said he was able to raise the maximum amount of money he is able to spend since he is participating in the city’s matching funds program.

“My fundraising is done for now, so I can focus on voter contact,” he said. “That’s a lot more fun and rewarding. I’ve been working hard and ringing a lot of doorbells. I think that’s my path to victory.”

Duane previously ran in 2010 for the state Assembly seat currently filled by Edward Braunstein.

He said he decided to jump into this year’s race prior to Halloran’s April 2 arrest for allegedly attempting to rig the mayoral election through bribery to get state Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, on the Republican mayoral ballot.

“I thought someone with more Democratic values might be more appropriate for representing this constituency,” said Duane, who was born in Flushing but has lived in Little Neck for years. “When people ask me what my qualification is for office, I tell them this is my community. I took care of my parents here and raised my kids here. If anyone knows the struggles we go through in this community, it’s me because I live here too. It’s a great neighborhood, but I think I could make it a better place to raise a family.”

Duane said education is one of his top concerns in his City Council bid.

“We have a situation where a lot of the candidates are attacking mayoral control of schools, but rather than engaging in a debate about who should control the schools, we should talk about how to improve the schools,” he said. “Right now, we have a system where parental involvement is a top-down structure. I’d used my district office to organize parents to get involved in schools and I think that would make the quality of education markedly better.

Duane, whose Vietnam veterans tuition assistance law was passed by the state Assembly in the 1980s, said he believed more needed to be done for soldiers returning from the Middle East.

“Right now, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are coming back and not getting the services they should be getting,” he said. “One of the most fundamental things as a country and city is that we ensure that those who fought for our freedom get the services they deserve when they come back home.”

Duane said he would use his office to bring services to veterans, rather than wait for them to seek out his help.

He said another top issue in his campaign would be to restore integrity and transparency to city government.

“Across this city, we see so many Council members indicted and convicted for misuse of funds, such as getting jobs for relatives or setting up not-for-profits that don’t do anything but employ their relatives,” he said. “If we are going to make city government work, we have to make sure there’s a renewed public trust.”

Duane said he had a three-part solution to the problem. First, he’d ask the chairmen of Community Boards 7 and 11 to appoint a member to an oversight committee on public funding that would also include the board’s budget chairmen and a member of the Queens district attorney’s office.

Secondly, he would introduce legislation requiring City Council members to post information on all meetings they attend – including those with other Council members, lobbyists or constituents - online.

“That would cut down on the type of corruption that takes place behind closed doors,” he said of his proposal.

Third, Duane said he would introduce a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for public officials or their staff members to not report indications of corruption to the authorities.

“Sometimes, it takes a little prod to make sure people are doing the right thing,” Duane said. “This would be another way to make sure people don’t sit on their hands when they see improper things going on.”

Duane said other areas of importance to his campaign was retaining funding for senior centers and libraries, which are threatened to be cut from the city’s budget each year.

And he believes there needs to be additional express bus service in northeast Queens.

“We’re a two-fare zone here,” he said. “The system we have is patently inadequate. If we want to reduce our carbon footprint and alleviate traffic congestion, we need to increase number of public and express buses.”

Keep an eye out for Patch’s upcoming interviews with the other candidates in the race for Halloran’s seat.