Personally, I consider everything in the Action package (and Config package in 1.1) to be part of the control layer, including the ActionForms.
The Action is designed to provide a bridge between the presentation layer (JSPs, templates, XMLs) and the model layer. The idea is that the view layer can talk to the Action and the Action then talks to the model layer.
Ideally, the Action should be talking to a facade that condenses what it needs to know about the model layer. For example, anything involving
JDBC should be behind a facade. The Action passes the required inputs to the facade, and then relays the output to the view.
HTH, Ted.