Norwich — The City Council on Monday will consider invoking its rarely used authority to conduct internal investigations to examine actions by two utilities commission members, including their participation in a controversial retreat to the 2016 Kentucky Derby and their subsequent reappointment as commission leaders despite city Ethics Commission rulings that they violated city ethics code by attending the trip.

Council members last week expressed anger that the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners reappointed Chairwoman Dee Boisclair and Vice Chairman Robert Groner on March 7, ignoring the Ethics Commission's recommendation that the two be removed from those positions. The Ethics Commission also had recommended they not be reappointed to their positions as Norwich board members to the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, which hosted and paid for lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby for the past four years.

By charter, the City Council can conduct investigations into any city employee, appointed official or agency and can seek removal of any officer or employee for improper conduct or malfeasance in office.

On Monday, the council will consider a two-page resolution sponsored by three council Republicans to appoint a committee consisting of Republicans Aldermen Gerald Martin and Stacy Gould and Democrat H. Tucker Braddock to investigate the performance and conduct of Boisclair and Groner.

The resolution stated the committee's investigation could include: “their participation in the 2016 trip to the Kentucky Derby, their participation in other CMEEC sponsored events, and their acceptance of the positions of chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, and the powers and responsibilities attendant thereto in 2017 in disregard of the recommendations of the Norwich Ethics Commission.”

The committee would be asked to report its findings back to the council no later than the June 19 council meeting. The aldermen also are considering hiring an attorney to help guide the investigative committee through its process.

“I wish we didn’t have to do this. We left them an honorable way out, and they went and voted themselves back in,” Martin said of the Ethics Commission recommendation that the two be replaced as utilities commission officers.

Republican council President Pro Tempore and mayoral candidate Peter Nystrom, a co-sponsor of the resolution, announced two weeks ago that he would propose an internal investigation focusing on Boisclair and Groner. Both were appointed by the council to the utilities commission to five-year terms.

The council on April 3 passed a resolution calling for all five Norwich participants in the trip — Mayor Deberey Hinchey, Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda, NPU Division Manager Steve Sinko, Boisclair and Groner — to pay back the entire estimated cost of the trips for themselves and their spouses.

Hinchey, who attended without her husband, already has reimbursed the city the Ethics Commission's recommended 25 percent of the value of her trip and said she would not increase that payment.

Bilda said he wouldn't pay any reimbursement until all investigations are completed. Bilda, Sinko and Groner currently are subjects of another Ethics Commission investigation into their participation in an October 2015 CMEEC retreat to The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

Nystrom, who has called for Bilda to resign over the controversy, said his proposal for a council investigation would focus on the conduct of the utilities commission members, rather than the NPU administrators.

While the council has clear authority over the council-appointed commissioners, Bilda was hired by the utilities commission, and Sinko is an NPU employee represented by a labor union.

Nystrom said the city charter that governs both city government and NPU created separations of authority, making NPU somewhat autonomous intentionally to avoid political interference.

c.bessette@theday.com