Norwich — The Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative board of directors on Thursday voted to create an ad hoc subcommittee to develop guidelines for future board retreats, CMEEC Vice Chairman and Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda said.

Thursday's meeting was the first for the board after public controversy erupted in recent weeks regarding the energy cooperative's lavish annual trips to the Kentucky Derby for the past four years. The trips have included dozens of guests and municipal officials from throughout Connecticut. The 2016 trip cost $342,330 for 44 invitees.

The CMEEC meeting and its agenda were not posted on the cooperative's website Thursday. The calendar page on the website listed no events for Thursday. The website's page for the board of directors is listed as "under construction." Minutes from some past meetings are posted, but no agendas.

Bilda, who has gone on the Derby trips for the past four years, said the resolution was added to the CMEEC agenda during Thursday's meeting. The board agreed the ad hoc committee will be appointed by CMEEC board Chairman Kenneth Sullivan, director of Jewett City Utilities. No appointments were made to the committee Thursday, Bilda said.

Sullivan, who went on the 2015 Derby trip, could not be reached to comment Thursday. Bilda declined to comment further on the resolution.

CMEEC Executive Director Drew Rankin, who strongly defended the Kentucky Derby trips earlier this week, also was not available to comment Thursday night but confirmed the resolution action by email.

On Wednesday, the Groton and Bozrah utilities commissions voted to ask their CMEEC board representatives to bring a resolution to the CMEEC governing board that would dictate that all CMEEC meetings, events and strategic retreats be held “in a manner and location which conveys fiscal responsibility and accountability,” according to Groton City Mayor Marian Galbraith, the utilities commissions' chairwoman.

The Groton and Bozrah commissions — comprising the same people, as Groton Utilities owns Bozrah Light & Power — also will request detailed information about the Kentucky Derby trips, including invitee lists, accounting information for all CMEEC trips and retreats for the past five years and more detailed information on the source of funding for the trips and how spending decisions are made.

CMEEC and trip participants have come under public criticism because of the trips, which Rankin said were paid for using revenue from contracts for sale of electricity and other services to nonmember entities, including the Mohegan Tribe, towns in Massachusetts and the management of hydropower facilities for the Metropolitan District Commission, a water and sewer agency in the Hartford area.

According to a heavily redacted summary of the so-called “CMEEC Margin” fund, the cooperative took $400,000 out of the $5.5 million fund in 2016 for “delegation related expenses.” In 2015, CMEEC spent $350,000 from the $5.8 million Margin fund revenues for delegation related expenses, which Rankin defined as the Derby trips.

Rankin said all other Margin funds are returned to the member utilities to help control electric rates. The redacted sheet does not show payments to the member utilities.

c.bessette@theday.com