Who We Are
The Property Tax Working Group was initially formed by 1000 Friends of Connecticut. The Group is composed of policymakers; former state legislators, municipal officials and executive branch officials; labor leaders; academics; regional government directors; budget experts and economists; and journalists. Members include:
William Buhler is Co-chair of Legislative action for CSEA and a former School Psychologist and Education Coordinator for the Department of Children and Families, Connecticut Juvenile Training School. He earned an M.A. in Clinical Psychological Research at Connecticut College.
Fred Carstensen is Professor of Finance and Economics, University of Connecticut; and Director, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
Jeff Davis of Pomfret was a state representative for several terms and co-chaired the Planning and Development Committee, where he spearheaded efforts on smart growth, affordable housing and regionalism. Davis is a former first selectman of Pomfret as well as a onetime owner and publisher of a weekly newspaper in eastern Connecticut.
Liz Dupont-Diehl is director of Upstream Solutions, which focuses on Pay for Success and other innovations in financing, to ensure that government funds effective human services programming and pays for successful outcomes, and work that creates equity, social justice and positive systems change. She was previously director of communications for Everyday Democracy and state director of Jobs for America’s Graduates, a national nonprofit dedicated to preventing dropouts by at-risk youth.
John Elsesser is one of the longest tenured town managers in Connecticut, having served in that position in Coventry since 1988. He has held leadership roles at the state and regional levels, including positions with the Tolland County Chamber of Commerce, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Council of Small Towns. Elsesser has chaired the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency and serves on the state E-911 Commission.
Lee Erdmann is a municipal consultant and has more than 30 years’ experience in town and city government. He was a former chief operating officer of Hartford; town manager of Enfield; town manager of Wethersfield; and chief administrative and financial officer of Springfield, MA. In addition, he was the interim executive director of the New London Housing Authority.
Albert Ilg was the interim city manager of Hartford following his retirement as town manager of Windsor, where he served for 32 years. As Hartford’s city manager, Ilg was credited with turning a projected $50 million budget deficit into a balanced budget and doing it without raising taxes. The Hartford Courant praised Ilg for “liberating the city hall bureaucracy from the stultifying chains of tradition.”
Michele Jacklin is a communications consultant and former journalist, having worked at The Hartford Courant for 28 years. As the newspaper’s chief political reporter, editorial writer and political columnist, she primarily wrote about public policy, state and local government, budgeting and elections. She served on the Glastonbury Town Council, and is a member of the board of Common Cause Connecticut, the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information.
Alex Knopp is a former visiting clinical lecturer at the Yale Law School in New Haven; president of the Norwalk Public Library; and a member of the board of Common Cause Connecticut. He has served as mayor of Norwalk as well as a state representative. While in the legislature, Knopp co-chaired the Government Administration and Elections Committee. He has expertise in state and local governance and in taxation and budgeting.
Susan Merrow is former chair of the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality, which assesses the condition of the state environment and reports its findings annually to the governor. She is a former first selectwoman of East Haddam as well as the onetime president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. In addition, Merrow is a former president of the national Board of Directors of the Sierra Club. She is the author of One for the Earth: Journal of a Sierra Club President.
Jamie Mills has served as director of fiscal policy at Connecticut Voices for Children and a senior adviser for policy analysis at the state Office of Policy and Management, where she was responsible for increasing the state’s capacity for data-driven decision making. For 20 years, Mills was an attorney in Hartford, focusing on labor- and employment-related matters, victims of sexual assault and public policy advocacy. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Ellen Scalettar has held elected public office as State Representative (114th District) in the CT General Assembly where she was Vice-chair of the Judiciary Committee, and as First Selectman of the Town of Woodbridge. Ellen’s policy experience includes her work at CT Voices for Children, where she is currently a Senior Fellow for Fiscal Policy, and her prior role with the CT Senate Democrats as Director of Policy, Research & Legislation. An attorney, Ellen has been a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale University Law School and has practiced law in the areas of privacy, defamation and First Amendment related issues.
