Norwich — The Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative hopes to enlist a parade of municipal leaders, member utility officials and business owners who benefit from lower rates to speak against a proposed bill in Hartford that would eliminate the cooperative.

State Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, proposed a bill that would repeal the state statute that created CMEEC along with a companion bill that would allow the state’s municipally owned utilities to create “joint purchasing agencies” to cooperatively purchase power in the future.

The CMEEC board of directors on Thursday listened to an overview of legislation by its lobbyists from Brown Rudnick LLP and outlined plans to testify to legislative committees if public hearings are scheduled on Somers’ two proposals.

While expressing strong opposition to the two bills, lobbyist Timothy Shea said two other proposed bills that would mandate disclosure of financial information, posting of agendas and minutes in member towns and reporting activities to member municipalities were acceptable measures for increased transparency.

Shea acknowledged that all four bills were the result of the public outcry over trips CMEEC has hosted for dozens of board members, staff, family members, municipal officials and guests to the Kentucky Derby over the past four years. CMEEC spent $1.02 million on the trips over the four years.

Somers said Wednesday the excessive spending on the retreats that included no official business or workshops shows that CMEEC has strayed from its sole mission of bringing lower electric rates to members. Somers said the agency “has lost its way,” and her bill is designed to raise the question of whether the agency still is relevant.

During the board’s discussion of Somers’ bills, members said part of the cooperative’s problem has been poor communication with member utilities and business utility customers on the savings realized through the nonprofit’s wholesale procurement of electricity. A day earlier, Groton Utilities officials said the current retail residential rate is 20 percent below that of Eversource, and Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda said Norwich has averaged 10 percent lower than retail residential rates annually.

Shea said members should stress the added costs the bill would bring to the member utilities to procure their own power and re-create the expertise CMEEC staff provides to the task.

“Legislators don’t want to go back to their towns and say they cost the towns money,” Shea told the board.

Tony Sheridan, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, attended Thursday’s meeting and also pledged to support the group’s effort to defeat the proposed bill. Sheridan said top business leaders who have seen the savings in their bills also should be enlisted to fight the proposed legislation.

After the meeting, CMEEC Executive Director Drew Rankin released a written statement on the agency’s position in fighting Somers’ Senate Bill 79 to repeal the legislation creating CMEEC.

“Bill 79 would be immediately and overwhelmingly costly to the area residents, employers, and owner towns served by CMEEC,” Rankin wrote in his statement. “It is an over-reaction to an issue already addressed by CMEEC’s governing Board and Utility Commissions. Without CMEEC, the average resident would have paid $25 more per month for electricity in 2016 and $34 more per month in 2015. At least four large employers in the region would have paid over $22 million more for electricity in 2016. Eliminating CMEEC means eliminating significant resident and employer value."

"The six Utility Commissions governing CMEEC have regulatory oversight responsibility," he wrote. "Bill 79 usurps that responsibility and would result in higher electricity prices and stranded investments.”

c.bessette@theday.com