Running for Office: Jill Oberlander ’88, MPA ’23, is on the Greenwich town council, and running for CT State Senate

[0:00]Hello, the guest today is Jill Overlander, class of 88. She is running for state Senate in Connecticut. So hi, Jill, what do you like about Connecticut? Hi, Tony. First of all, thanks so much for coming out and knocking doors with me today. I wanted to tell your viewers a little bit about me. I'm a 1988 Arts and Sciences graduate from Cornell, where I studied government, started my love for government there. I also went back to Cornell and got a master's in public administration in 2023 at the new Brooks School. That was fantastic. I love that that was the executive master's program. And I'm the parent of two Cornellians. 1 graduated in 2025 S just over a year ago, and 1 is a senior there now. And then I have a third daughter who is at the University of Wisconsin as well. So big Cornell family and active and Cornell alumni events. And so it's been really great to have you come out here. What do I like about Connecticut? Connecticut is a great state. So it was New York. I grew up in New York and like Connecticut is beautiful and it's small, so you can really get to know people across the state, make a difference. It has a coastline. I live in Greenwich, CT and we're so we're at the western tip, but obviously the sound goes all the way the length of Connecticut. But it also has a farmland and other areas. It has cities, it has universities, it really has it all. Super so So as elected official, what kind of things could you do for? Sure. So like all of us, I've been watching the progression on issues going from the federal government to the state. So our state legislatures are really important these days and that's what prompted my decision to run for this seat. It is an open seat. Our current state senator is not running for re election. Given our the importance of our state legislature, I thought now's the time. I have been serving in local office here for over 13 years. And so now is the time to put my skills and experience to work

[2:01]for the state. In addition, I'm a lawyer and I I didn't get my law degree at Cornell. I went to the University of Chicago for that one. And but I worked in and around government during my professional career and also along with my elected office out here. So I felt like I had a really great background to to send to the state. And the state gets involved in all sorts of things, right, All kinds of policies right now. This last session, they've been responding to the increases in in costs for Connecticut residents, largely driven by some of the decisions made in Washington, the scale back of some of the funding sources that we've seen. So making sure our residents have access to stamps and support for food and also our low income residents have continued, especially the children, continued access to healthcare. There were cuts to the Husky program, which effects our low income children. So things like that are super important, responding and making sure our residents feel safe in their homes as well as developing incentives so that people will have an opportunity to make a decision about renewable energy on their own homes with like an economic support. So just an example. On the local level as well, like what are the differences between the federal, state and local? When you think about the local level, right, all politics starts at home. So if you need a stop sign, a parking spot, a pothole filled. A lot of it comes down to roads, schools funding your, your paying for your public schools, your, you know, sanitation services, your police, the basic services that are being provided. Connecticut does not have a county system. Other states do. And there's county wide more regional government, government that provides a lot of the governmental services. Connecticut doesn't have that. We have state parks and we have local parks, right? So we don't have a county park system in between. So the state does, you know, they take care of the major, major highways that across the state, obviously the state roads they have, we do have state

[4:03]police, but it's they're not providing local policing, public health, the educational system, things like that. So. Gotcha. More on the global policy, I would say not global, global like international, but statewide. Policy. So today we knocked on doors. When you were knocking on doors, how do you connect the voter that you see in front of you with the rest of all the policies? Yeah. So my concern is to find out what's important to the voters. What are, what are they worried about? What are they concerned about? What do they want from their elected officials? And that will vary depending on the voter and also depending on the area. So, you know, today we spoke to a voter just but before we sat down here, who wanted to make sure that Greenwich was not being over developed, let's just say, and that we were able our infrastructures able to manage the new development, new housing. There's a push for new housing so that Greenwich is able to manage the the housing. We spoke to other voters earlier who are just looking for, I'll just call it responsible government. I think more moderate, responsible government. They were supporters of mine. They said they would vote for me. They are not Democrats, actually. They were unaffiliated voters. But they want somebody. I'm a centrist, so I'm fiscally conservative, socially more progressive. And they want someone who's going to sort of be in the middle, right? That's going to bring some balance and some common sense. So back to government. A lot of people have lost faith in government these days. So I think that's what a lot of people are looking for. Gotcha. So does that help influence how you think about the policies? Sure. My goal is to represent the district and to so I need to do that. And you have to listen first. You have to understand what are people's concerns? What are they worried about people, A lot of people are worried. We didn't talk to people today, but on other days we've talked to people about the cost of living and how difficult it is to stay here as a senior and possibly for their kids to move here to make sure we're

[6:05]addressing the structural costs that are that are making Connecticut an expensive place to live. The governor has done a good job in addressing some of the fiscal issues and putting more money aside so that we have more money to spend on our state budget. I mean, I had a little a few ideas on my own of things that I wanted to address, but I've been out knocking on doors now for four months or so. We've knocked, my team has knocked on about 10,000 doors. We're doing great. So I've got a lot of direct research results. I'd like to call, I'm parking it to what researchers like back in the day before there was AI and Google searched, you had to actually go out and read and talk to people. And so this is direct research from from people. And so from that I developed a platform of what I'm calling the ABC's. So A is the issues on affordability that the cost of everything for people. So I hear most at the door about the cost of electricity and the cost of healthcare. So those will be two of the things that I want to address first. B is supporting our businesses, helping them grow here if they want to grow and a strong economic foundation for our state. So addressing our fiscal challenges and making sure that we have smart fiscal policy that will help us grow jobs and grow businesses here to provide opportunities for our young people when they're ready to enter the workforce, for people mid career when they want to make a change, and people sort of later in their careers so they don't have to retire early. And then C is 2 things. C is because I'm a centrist, as I said, basically conservative, socially more liberal, right in the center, in line with our district. That's what I think most of our district sits. And C is also for the Constitution. So our Constitution. I'm a lawyer. I swore an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution when I was sworn into the bar. I took that oath seriously then and I take it seriously today. And so those are issues that are being dealt with at this at the state level. And so I want to bring those skills, experience and my seriousness about protecting the

[8:05]Constitution to our state. So before you ran for this position, what experience did you do in the past? I am in my 7th year on our town council. We call it the Representative Town Meeting. It's sort of a traditional New England style legislature of sorts, right? We're large, so we have 230 members. When I first moved out to Greenwich 20 years ago, my kids were babies and I loved government. So I said I'm going to get involved in our town government. I ran for the RTM. It was the first time I had run for public office. A friend down the street said you have to go stand at the polls. I had no idea and that I did. I stood at the polls all day. I got elected. I served for six years right then when my kids were really little. And then I took a little bit of a break and came back. I ran for state, a State House seat, in 2014, and that's when I started getting involved in the party system. I'm a Democrat. I've been a Democrat all of my life, but I hadn't been affiliated with the party out here. They asked me to run. I said yes, and I didn't know anything about Greenwich's history. I didn't know that a Democrat hadn't been elected at that time in in almost 100 years. So they told me that after I agreed to run and we had a great time. I ran a great race. I didn't win, but I only came up 244 votes short. So that's just 122 people. Had I had a partner like you on the doors at that time and knew more about what I was doing, I'm sure I would have, I would have been able to close that gap. And after that race, I joined our finance board, which is called the BET and I served there for four years. I became the first Democrat in history elected chair. And also during that time, we were able able to convert our State House seats to Democratic representation. As I said, many of those had not been won by Democrat in decades. So that was really exciting. And then after serving on our finance board, I ran for our Board of Select mode and I served for two years, but I served during COVID. So COVID hit within three months

[10:08]of the election. And so I helped steer the town through COVID. But those were challenging years and they COVID impacted my mother quite a in a significant way. And my girls were finishing up high school. So I stepped down from politics for a couple of years to focus on family issues. And then, then. Now you're back. And now I'm back. Now I'm back. Yeah. So, So when you were part of this, this the, the, the, the selectmen, Yeah. How'd you build up your effectiveness? So I ran on a platform of the three ES. I was focused on education, economics and on the environment. And so I was the minority select person on the board. So I there was one of me to the, the two Republicans. So my footprint was limited by by the voting gap, but I was able to found and share the Greenwich Sustainability Committee, which is now I think in its. So it would have been 2019. So we're going on 7 years, right on the OR six to seven years on the sustainability committee. And that has brought together advocates, town leaders and residents to educate and and expand on all sorts of environmental concerns, advocating for EV chargers at our town hall, for legislative advocacy for waste reduction, recycling in other ways. I mean, really for pollinator pathways all across the spectrum. That's a very, very vibrant group. And that happened under my leadership at the same time I was, you know, I used the the platform of the Board of Selectmen to support our educators. We saw during COVID how important it is for kids, students to be in school with eyes on them, their teachers be in person with teachers making sure they're they're thriving, they're doing well and identifying when there's an issue. And so that's something that stuck with me. I've always been a supporter of schools and, and students learning and our educators. But seeing the direct impact of

[12:10]the kids not being in school has brought that home truthfully. And on economics, you know, I had some ideas for another committee similar to the sustainability committee, but that was not given to me in my purview. So have I had a few more years I probably would have gotten not done as well. Nice. So, so when you were like in the minority, how were you able to get things done? Yeah, it's hard. It's hard So that, you know, and I think part of the role of being in government is to represent the voices that otherwise don't have a seat at the table. So the minority member has that role as well. To be very well prepared for everything, right, You need to, you need to know what's going on. You need to be prepared. You need to be a good listener, right, to understand where people's positions are, and then you need to advocate for the people who aren't otherwise at the table. So this like the sustainability group that you created, Like what was the process in creating that? Because a minority, yeah. So, well, that was an area that I was able to carve out. And what we did is we have a really active and strong group of advocates in town and we worked together and we developed a mission statement and value based statement and we figured out a structuring and then we needed to bring the town leaders along with us so the various departments who we want to have as partners and also we might influence in their jurisdictions. So we have a strong Environmental Conservation department and there are a number of different boards, but we really needed to take it step by step to develop trust and cooperation to make sure we were all on the same page. What we? Were doing so you were able to get the EV chargers. And yes, yeah, we were, we were able to get the EV chargers installed at town hall. That was definitely an accomplishment. And now we're able to track where we there's a sustainability report, committee report. They still meet, they meet monthly on the committee has continued by the the being led by different select people on the board. And so they're still doing great work in the community.

[14:13]So that didn't exist before and. Now it didn't exist before. Yes, and, and it has brought together residents from across town. There's so many groups in Greenwich that are interested in different aspects of environmental issues, whether it's the Tree Conservancy, Environmental Commission, the Shellfish Commission, you know, in the wetlands we have planning and zoning, there's public works, It all touches. We have a bicycle transportation advisory group, works on issues related to bicycles and sidewalks. You know, these all issues all end up being interrelated. So to have a group that focuses on bringing people together to talk about them is is really useful. Gotcha. Before you started running for that select person? Like were you involved in the environmental work as well before? At the time, if you remember, sea level rise was becoming a big issue. Climate change resiliency planning is a big issue, and the town truthfully hadn't done very much of it. So when I was on the finance board, we were able to fund a phase of climate resiliency study that had been taken out of the budget by the debt and the city interest. So that was, you know, to make sure we're doing what we need to do to be prepared for the future. It's really important for me. So on the on the funding side, on the finance side, on the policy goal setting aside yes, but not on the stakeholder engagement side, which is a little bit more sustainability. And then the earlier you mentioned the BET, is that like a budget of the tax? That's the finance board and they're, I'm going to say they're the most powerful board really. They control the purse strings. So what they do is, you know, our, our first selectman, the equivalent of a mayor puts together a budget and the board of select, the Board of Education, the school's Superintendent, they put together a budget. Then it goes to the BET and the BET reviews it, pressure tests it, asks questions, makes changes, debates it. And, you know, a budget is really a statement of values more than anything else.

[16:14]You know, obviously things that we need to get done, contractual obligations, paying for our our staff and our teachers and the people that dedicate the police officers or firefighters, all within the budget, right. But then also deciding where you know what capital projects get funded as well. So I did that for for four years and two years as chair and the chair, you set the agenda right, you staff the committees and you have a tie breaking vote. So for every decision like that, you if, if there's a divide, whether it be partisan or otherwise, you get a tie breaking vote. And when I was chair, I was very proud we didn't had a number of accomplishments this year. So first and foremost, most are unprecedented, historically low tax increases for the two years that I was chair. But that's just one thing. Everyone's always concerned about their taxes, right, and whether a Democrat's going to raise their taxes. So we kept taxes lower than the past. How well defined is the budget? Because there is a lot you could vary depending on who the select person is but they're in charge of. It yes, so and there are areas where we added so when we were in in charge of the VET at the time, there were areas that we thought we needed to focus on that hadn't been part of the first weapons budget. I'll give an example. We had no money allocated for cyber security. So we crafted, did a funding line item for dealing with cybersecurity. Now it's you wouldn't think any town would have no funding for cybersecurity, no planning for that. So we did that. We also did a field study. So at the time people, residents were really concerned about the state of our athletic fields. We had a couple of fields, number of fields closed for environmental remediation and a number of fields flooding due to, you know, poor drainage systems. OK, so we, we funded a field study, but everything you do has to be implemented by the, the, the executive, the town executive and the departments. So you really need to be working in collaboration with them because you can fund something, but if they're not going to do it, we don't. We're not an operating department, we're really just the finance farm.

[18:16]So we can make suggestions on things that where attention is needed. I'm really good at identifying problems and solutions and make working towards solutions. But in that role you really needed somebody else to agree with you that this was a priority. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, we can point things out and if they're they don't want to do it, they're just not going to do it. One of the things though, that I'm also really proud that we were able to address is that there was a financing problem with one of our essential nonprofits that provides transportation services to handicapped people, elderly as well. And they were facing a, a critical loss of funding and needed some sort of a, a workout, let's just say a financial workout. And we were able to step in as the, and, and make sure they continue to provide that service and work with the town to make sure that they stayed in business. Otherwise a number of our older people and our more disabled people had transportation around town and that really would have been terrible for them so. Yeah, so. So for the closing question, I always ask the guest, So what's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you? What's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me? So I'm not sure that I'll say it's the kindest thing, but I think everybody, I hope everybody in their life has a teacher touch that touched their life at a critical moment. I had one in 4th grade. I was shy. I was a very shy student and I had a teacher that it made me feel comfortable enough to bring my me out of my shell. I saw with my children, they each had a teacher that saw them, that gave them the support and confidence. And so I've had actually, now that I think about it, a number of people that have been kind to me and to my family to support us in difficult times. That has made a huge difference. And I can't undervalue that Is

[20:17]like a gift. Yeah. What's 1 of the What's the kind of thing that people have done for? You meeting Cornelius Cornelius are the finest people in the world. That's a nice way to end it. Thank you so much. Go big Red.