Norwich — Five separate reports should be submitted this week detailing ethics violations and recommended action against five city officials who participated in a controversial trip to the Kentucky Derby in May hosted by the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative.

Ethics Commission Chairwoman Carol Menard said Friday the commission is writing separate reports on the subjects of the complaints: Mayor Deberey Hinchey, Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda, NPU Division Manager Steve Sinko and utilities commission Chairwoman Dee Boisclair and Vice Chairman Robert Groner.

The reports will be presented to the City Council and the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners, which would have the authority to act on the recommendations regarding the city officials involved.

Many of the recommendations approved by the Ethics Commission last Monday tread new ground for the 8-year-old agency, including recommended financial reimbursement for all or portions of the trip costs, letters of reprimand and removal from leadership positions of the two utilities commission members.

The five officials have declined to comment on the Ethics Commission rulings. Bilda and Sinko said in a statement released by NPU that they would not comment publicly until they review the written Ethics Commission reports with their attorney.

Attorney Paul McCary is representing all four NPU officials involved in the complaints, with his bill being paid for by CMEEC.

The Ethics Commission report is expected to include an objection that the NPU respondents are not paying for their own attorney. Mayor Hinchey is paying for her attorney, Jeffrey Londregan.

The mathematical calculations for the reimbursement would total $40,707.50. The Ethics Commission recommended the money go into “some type of fund that helps people with their electric bills,” Ethics Commission member Christopher Dixon said at Monday's meeting.

CMEEC, the utility cooperative created by member municipal electric utilities, said it paid $342,330 for 44 participants. The Ethics Commission used those figures to calculate the cost for each trip participant at $7,780. The commission subtracted the $50 allowed “gift” limit in the city ethics code, leaving the individual cost at $7,730.

Bilda estimated that NPU owns about 25 percent of CMEEC. And since the money used by CMEEC for the trip came from a fund of CMEEC revenues returned to member municipal utilities for rate stabilization, the Ethics Commission deduced that 25 percent of the trip cost “belonged” to Norwich.

The Ethics Commission recommended Hinchey reimburse the city 25 percent of the $7,730 for her trip, and said Boisclair and Groner should reimburse the city for 25 percent of the cost for themselves and their spouses. The spouses, however, do not get the $50 “gift” reduction. Groner and Boisclair would reimburse the city $3,877.50 each — 25 percent of $15,510.

The Ethics Commission placed greater responsibility for the ethics breach onto the two top NPU administrators, recommending Bilda and Sinko each repay the entire $15,510 cost of the trip for themselves and their spouses.

The commission's idea that the money be placed into a fund for people struggling to pay utility bills could have different avenues. NPU electric bills allow customers to donate to Operation Fuel, a fund created by the state and managed in this region by the Thames Valley Council for Community Action. Norwich Human Services also maintains an emergency utilities fund specifically for Norwich residents facing financial crises, Human Services Director Lee Ann Gomes said.

City Council President Pro Tempore Peter Nystrom said he would prefer that the reimbursement money benefit all city customers, since the CMEEC rate-stabilization fund would have been applied across the board.

Another recommendation by the Ethics Commission would require a new policy for the city.

The commission is recommending letters of reprimand be placed in files for all five trip recipients. While Bilda and Sinko have standard personnel files as city employees, and Hinchey also is a paid city official, currently there are no such files for board and commission appointees.

The Ethics Commission wants the letter to apply not only to Boisclair's and Groner's service on the utilities commission, but to any future application they might make to join other boards and commissions.

Nystrom and Alderman H. Tucker Braddock are members of the City Council committee on appointments to various boards and commissions. The committee researches whether applicants are Norwich residents and whether they owe back taxes, but that is the limit of the background checks, Braddock said.

Braddock suggested a general file for appointments to boards or commissions could be created and placed at the city clerk's office, “a neutral location,” he said. Letters of reprimand could go into such a file, he said.

Several of the Ethics Commission's recommendations will go to the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners. The Ethics Commission will recommend that Boisclair be removed as utilities board chairman and that Groner be removed as vice chairman when officer appointments are made in March. The ethics panel also recommended that the two be removed from their seats on the CMEEC board of directors. The Norwich utilities commission appoints members to that board.

The ethics panel also will recommend a two-year travel probation period for Bilda and Sinko, asking that the utilities commission approve all their travel plans and expenses prior to any business trips.

According to travel expense invoices received by The Day through an FOI request, for 2016 alone, Bilda was reimbursed by NPU for a total of $20,500 for nine trips to conferences and meetings of various utilities associations throughout the United States. Locations included Falmouth, Mass.; Newport, R.I.; Lake Placid, N.Y.; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Phoenix, Ariz., and Washington, D.C. Some of Bilda's reported expenses include dinner and travel for other NPU officials traveling with him, NPU officials said.

A travel summary for Sinko showed in 2016 he attended five conferences in Boston and Harwich, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; Las Vegas, Nev., and Nashville, Tenn. His itemized expenses often were combined with other trip participants', not separated by individual.

c.bessette@theday.com