Voskerichian Focuses on Schools, Public Safety in Council Bid

Chrissy Voskerichian is focusing on education, public safety and fighting overdevelopment in her bid for Councilman Dan Halloran’s seat, which she said was a 24-hour job.

Voskerichian, who lives in Auburndale and previously worked as Halloran’s chief of staff, said she decided to jump into the race after resigning from her post at the councilman’s office in the spring and received encouraging phone calls from local residents.

“My candidacy is all about people,” she said. “I have lived in this community my entire life and raised two kids and sent them to public schools. If I get elected, I hope my office is crowded and busy every day. I don’t believe this is a nine-to-five job. If people need help, there’s no such thing as, ‘We’re going home and will deal with it tomorrow.’”

Voskerichian worked for 31 years at Avaya Communications, beginning as a mailroom worker and ending up two levels below the president of the global systems company.

She acted as president of the 109th Precinct’s community council and was eventually asked to work in then-newly elected Councilman Dan Halloran’s office in 2009.

“I thought of it as a great way to extend my community work,” said Voskerichian, who was eventually promoted to director of constituent services and then to chief of staff. “My focus was all on constituents. I think we accomplished a lot of good in three years and I want to continue and expand on it.”

She said she resigned from the post immediately after the councilman was arrested in an alleged scheme to rig the mayoral election.

In her bid for Halloran’s seat, Voskerichian said she is prioritizing improvements to local schools, additional resources for police precincts and quality of life issues, such as preventing overdevelopment.

“I don’t believe that one size fits all for schools,” she said. “I think we need to put the education of our children back into the hands of people who can have the greatest impact – parents, teachers and principals. Our schools are overcrowded, so we need new ones. There are more people moving into our district, and we currently can’t accommodate the children we have.”

She said she has long worked with the 109th Precinct and believes that public safety is a key issue for the district.

“We live in a very safe district, but the city is down from 41,000 to about 33,000 officers,” she said. “If your home gets burglarized, you call 911 and have to wait for three hours.”

Voskerichian said she would call for the creation of a substation at the College Point police academy to assist northeast Queens’ precinct. And she said she wants to expand programs to remove graffiti and provide VIN etching and identification for children.

As for overdevelopment, she said she plans to push for policy changes at the city’s Department of Buildings and Board of Standards and Appeals.

“We fight variances by making logical objections and presenting our arguments,” she said. “And we walk away saying, ‘There’s no way we’re going to lose on this.’ A month or two later, the BSA overrules us. I feel land use decisions should be made by the City Council. We have covenants in place in certain neighborhoods, but civics are spending so much of their resources fighting people who come in and break those covenants.”

Other issues of importance for the City Council candidate include ensuring that community facilities are not constructed on residential streets and preserving green space.

“We bought into northeast Queens because it’s like being in the country, but in an urban area,” she said. “We want to see our neighborhoods remaining intact. And we need to keep our green space at any cost. Once it’s gone, it can’t be returned.”

Voskerichian will face off in the Democratic primary in September against long-time community activist Paul Graziano, former state Assemblyman John Duane, Flushing attorney Paul Vallone and Austin Shafran, formerly of Empire State Development.