General managers and directors of municipal utilities in the state have been invited by state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, to testify at an upcoming public hearing on her bill calling for repealing the state statute that enabled the creation of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative.

Somers submitted the proposed legislation in the wake of controversial trips to the Kentucky Derby hosted by CMEEC from 2013 through 2016 for board members, some staff members, family, guests and municipal officials. The trips, called “strategic retreats” but with no CMEEC business conducted, cost $1.02 million collectively over the four-year period.

Somers sent letters to the heads of all six municipal utility members of CMEEC and to the general manager of Wallingford Division of Utilities — which is ending its contract affiliation with CMEEC — to testify at the upcoming hearing by the legislature's Energy and Technology Committee. The hearing initially was scheduled for Feb. 7, but Somers said Wednesday it will be postponed to a later date this month.

Somers also has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to CMEEC for budget documents from 2013 through 2016, and has asked the Office of Legislative Research to provide a comparison of electric rates for customers in all towns in Connecticut, including those in CMEEC towns, other municipally owned utilities and for customers of United Illuminating and Eversource.

A second bill by Somers would allow member municipalities to create “joint purchasing agencies” to purchase power.

At CMEEC's Jan. 26 board meeting, CMEEC Executive Director Drew Rankin and several board members said the agency needed to conduct a public education campaign to show the value CMEEC has had to the member communities and the state over the years. Member utility rates consistently are lower than electric rates for customers in investor-owned utility markets, and CMEEC has invested in renewable energy projects and micro-generation projects to improve service reliability during extended power outages.

Rankin on Wednesday said Somers has not reached out to the cooperative to learn about and assess its objectives and “sustained low cost performance data,” but he is willing to meet with the legislature to discuss the issues.

“CMEEC's owner communities and non-owner customers, including multiple large employers in the region, realize significant lower wholesale cost and strategic benefits compared to all other market options,” Rankin wrote in an email response to Somers' bills and request for information. “Any action to harm the communities and large employers by disabling CMEEC does not serve any constructive value.”

Rankin also said he has not yet received Somers' FOI request, dated Jan. 30, but said the agency has complied or “is in the process of complying” with FOI requests, with exceptions allowed in the law for “commercially sensitive data.”

“NPU is adamantly opposed to Sen. Somers' proposed bill,” NPU spokesman Chris Riley said in an email Wednesday night. “Dismantling CMEEC would increase rates by millions of dollars for NPU electric customers, from our large commercial and heath care customers to our residential customers. We are particularly concerned for our low- and fixed-income customers, many of whom receive financial assistance through our partnership with the (Thames Valley Council for Community Action).”

Somers, however, said she wants more specific financial information from CMEEC to show how the cooperative owned by its member utilities handles its revenues and profits received from various contracts. CMEEC officials have kept contract information confidential, calling it business proprietary information exempt from state FOI laws.

A so-called CMEEC Margin Fund, where revenues from the outside contracts are deposited, was used to pay for the Kentucky Derby trips. Somers said she requested unredacted versions of the cooperative's budgets for her research.

“What are all these profits?” Somers said Wednesday. “They're supposed to be a nonprofit.”

Somers said if her bill to repeal the CMEEC statute goes too far, she still wants to explore ways the cooperative could be restructured to ensure that the entity works to provide its members the lowest rates possible.

Somers sent a letter to George Adair, general manager of the Wallingford Division of Utilities asking him to testify at the upcoming hearing. Wallingford had contracted with CMEEC to purchase power, but will end its affiliation with the cooperative next year. Wallingford and CMEEC currently are in an arbitration case involving financial disputes in their contract.

“Having replaced the power procurement services of CMEEC with another entity,” Somers wrote to Adair, “Wallingford Electric Division is in a unique position to provide insight into how CMEEC could be improved and what alternatives are available to municipal electric utilities in the marketplace.”

c.bessette@theday.com