Norwich — Proposed legislation by state Sen. Cathy Osten and three other local legislators would require all retreats hosted by the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy cooperative to be held in the state, be approved in advance at a public meeting and include a list of participants with business related to the utility co-op.

Osten, D-Sprague, announced the proposed Transparency and Accountability for CMEEC and Municipal Utilities bill Tuesday morning standing outside Norwich City Hall. She said state Reps. Emmett Riley, D-Norwich, and Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, and state Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, are co-sponsors, all of whom did not attend Tuesday's news conference. Other legislators are expected to sign on to the bill once the 2017 session starts, she said.

For the past four years, CMEEC has hosted lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby, which the agency called "strategic retreats" for dozens of board members, guests and municipal officials. The four trips combined have cost $1.02 million, including the 2016 trip, which cost $342,330 for 44 participants, including Norwich Mayor Deberey Hinchey.

CMEEC is owned by six member municipal utilities, including Norwich Public Utilities, Jewett City Utilities and Groton Utilities, which also owns Bozrah Light & Power.

Osten called the Kentucky Derby trips "a misstep" by CMEEC that has eroded public trust in the agency she said is beneficial to member utilities and the state. She also praised municipally owned utilities for their responsiveness to their communities, especially during storms and emergencies.

"The legislation I am proposing is a very simple solution to ensure that this type of questionable behavior does not happen again," Osten said in a news release issued Tuesday morning. "The trust of residents and ratepayers was betrayed by this revelation, and they deserve to know that this type of activity would not continue."

The bill would not prevent CMEEC or municipal utility officials from attending conferences and trade shows out of state, but those, too, would have to be limited to business-related issues and personnel.

"Most conferences, you don't send 40-some people," Osten said.

The bill would call for audited annual financial reports of all accounts to be posted on CMEEC's and municipal utilities' websites upon board approval of the audits, board meeting schedules and agendas to be posted on CMEEC's website and provided to member municipalities, and all board actions to be forwarded to member municipalities.

CMEEC currently posts meeting minutes on its website, but has not posted agendas and minutes at member utilities' city and town clerks' offices. The agency had not posted agendas either on its website or in city and town clerks office consistently for the past several years. The Norwich city clerk's office did receive an agenda for Thursday's 10 a.m. CMEEC board meeting at its 30 Stott Ave. headquarters.

With regard to CMEEC retreats, the bill would require that all strategic retreats not include any entertainment or gifts of value “over and above what is noticed and formally acknowledged by the board of directors,” that all retreats must incorporate explicit meeting sessions for direct business and be accompanied by agendas, participant lists and subsequent minutes.

Riley said he has heard from Norwich constituents who are concerned about the Kentucky Derby trips. He said the proposed legislation would add a level of transparency to the agency's functions that should be in place already.

“This is basic stuff,” Riley said. “It's unfortunate that they aren't already doing all this.”

Formica, the ranking member of the General Assembly's Energy and Technology Committee, said he sent a letter to committee members in the wake of the Kentucky Derby retreat controversy suggesting the committee revisit enabling legislation that established CMEEC and other similar agencies. He said he received consensus from members to do that.

So when Osten proposed her bill, Formica thought it would be a “good start” for that process. He added that energy issues are likely to become more important to the state in the future, and CMEEC provides a valuable service to member utilities in procuring power at reasonable rates.

“A lot of concerns have come up about how CMEEC does its business, the fact that these trips have been part of what they've done for the past few years,” Ryan said, “and I think people should be aware of it, and I think CMEEC wants to get the feedback that they need to have to make them aware of how people feel about expenditures of this kind.”

The bill would start in the Energy Committee and make its way to other committees if it is approved, Osten said. She encouraged members of the public to go to Hartford to testify at public hearings expected to be held in January or February.

Osten also said she met with officials from CMEEC, including Executive Director Drew Rankin, and with NPU officials and said "they are amenable to the legislation." She said CMEEC was created through an act of the state legislature, and therefore the bill dictating its governance practices is appropriate.

Rankin could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

John Bilda, general manager of NPU and vice chairman of the CMEEC board of directors, said Tuesday he hasn't seen the entire proposed bill and how it would apply to NPU specifically. Bilda said NPU would track the bill and testify in Hartford at any upcoming public hearings.

“We've always had a good working relationship with Senator Osten,” Bilda said. “We're ready to cooperate with the legislature.”

One utility in western Connecticut is wary of the proposed legislation. George Adair, director of the Wallingford Department of Public Utilities, said his agency already has strict public oversight of its operations that ensure it is "very accountable to the municipality. The Wallingford Town Council approves budgets and has veto power over utility commission votes, for example.

Wallingford utilities is not a member of CMEEC and is currently in financial arbitration over a contract to purchase power from the cooperative. Adair said Wallingford would welcome improved oversight of CMEEC, but would not want that state oversight extended to municipally owned and controlled utilities.

"We do not feel it is necessary or appropriate for the state legislature to enact any legislation that would dictate or regulate any further matters having to deal with the local level."," Adair said.

c.bessette@theday.com