The group of a dozen experts helping a court-appointed receiver develop a plan for the future of the financially troubled schooner Amistad is heavily populated by officials connected with the city of New Haven, the ship's homeport.

The names of those helping receiver Katharine Sacks are listed in the group's mission statement, which The Day obtained on Friday.

The three southeastern Connecticut representatives on the Amistad Advisory Committee are Mystic Seaport President Steve White, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Lonnie Braxton and Tammy Daugherty, the director of the New London Office of Development and Planning. The ship has spent the winter at the Seaport undergoing maintenance and is scheduled to spend the summer and fall docked on the New London waterfront. Its berth in New Haven has become too shallow and needs to be dredged.

The six representatives with New Haven connections are LaToya Cowan, project manager for the city's Office of Economic Development; former state representative and Speaker of the House Bill Dyson; Steven Fontana, the deputy director of the city's Office of Economic Development; Karen King, a community affairs associate from Yale University; Matthew Nemerson, director of the city's Office of Economic Development; and Alexis H. Smith, the deputy director of New Haven Legal Assistance.

The other three members are Bert Rogers, the executive director of Tall Ships America in Newport, R.I.; Paul McCraven, senior vice president for community development for First Niagara Bank, and Len Miller CPA, the founder of SoundWaters and Nonprofit Collaborative Alliance of Stamford.

Assisting the committee to come up with a plan for Amistad America are assistant state attorneys general Karen Gano and Mark Kohler, ship's first mate Jesse Doucette and Kip Bergstrom, a former state Department of Community and Economic Development deputy commissioner who now works with the state Office of Policy and Management.

Emails obtained by The Day show that Bergstrom worked to keep $400,000 in annual state funding flowing to Amistad America despite the organizations financial problems and lack of record keeping.

According to its mission statement, the Amistad Advisory Committee task is to focus on the ship's short-term future and long-term viability after the receivership ends. It plans to have its recommendations completed next month.

"The Advisory Committee anticipates that its recommendations will inform and orient the board of a new operating entity for the Amistad, and reassure the legislature as it considers the viability of continued operations and funding for the vessel as the state's flagship," according to the mission statement. "The committee will take notice of past operational and financial difficulties in order to develop recommendations that will avoid similar problems going forward. The committee will assess and recommend a framework for responsible operation and programming that takes into consideration the significant financial and emotional investment the State of Connecticut has in the ship. The committee recognizes that the Amistad is a compelling symbol that makes the Amistad story tangible and current for all who have opportunity to board the ship."

Questions have been raised about how the ship's financially troubled owner, Amistad America, spent more than $9 million in state funding and lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file taxes for three years. The ship has $2 million in debt and the maritime liens placed on it could make it difficult to transfer ownership to a new entity. The state continues to give the ship about $400,000 a year in funding.

The firm that conducted an audit of Amistad America for the state noted that the audits were based in part on numbers that did not come from records or receipts but rather were "verbal" reports.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas