Norwich — The Board of Public Utilities Commissioners will hire legal counsel to tackle the recent Ethics Commission recommendations that two top Norwich Public Utilities officials reimburse the city for the costs of their controversial trips to the Kentucky Derby in May 2016 and a call for stricter travel scrutiny for the next two years.

Newly elected commission Chairwoman Grace Jones suggested the move, following the example set recently by the City Council in its internal investigation into the Ethics Commission recommendations. The commission voted unanimously to approve hiring an attorney following a 45-minute executive session discussion of the ethics report, and expects to complete its review in September.

The Ethics Commission ruled Feb. 13 that four NPU officials and Mayor Deberey Hinchey violated the city ethics code in attending the May 2016 expenses-paid trip to the Kentucky Derby hosted by the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative. The trip was funded using money that would have gone to the six CMEEC member utilities as rate-stabilization revenue. CMEEC hosted trips to the derby for four years, from 2013 to 2016.

The Ethics Commission recommended that NPU General Manager John Bilda and NPU Division Manager Steve Sinko each reimburse the city for the entire calculated value of the trip for themselves and their spouses: a $15,560 total for each.

The ethics report also recommended that the utilities commission closely scrutinize travel by Bilda and Sinko for a two-year period, approving proposed trips and expenses in advance and reviewing expense sheets and work conducted afterward.

At the start of a public discussion on the ethics report Tuesday, Bilda outlined steps top NPU leaders already have taken in reaction to public outcry over the Kentucky Derby trips. 

He submitted a draft proposed new travel policy and said it would be impractical to ask the commission to approve all trips in advance, because some are taken on short notice to Washington, D.C., and other places on technical electricity and natural gas supply or pricing issues.

At that point, Jones called for a vote to go into executive session to review the recommendations as personnel issues. Commission member Robert Staley, a new appointee, at first objected, saying discussion of travel policies would not qualify as executive session issues under the state Freedom of Information law.

The commission agreed to limit the scope of the discussion to Bilda's and Sinko's travel and proposed sanctions.

The Ethics Commission also had recommended that former utilities commission Chairwoman Dee Boisclair and Vice Chairman Robert Groner reimburse the city for 25 percent of the value of their trips — the estimated amount that would have gone into Norwich's rate-stabilization fund. But the two resigned May 1 on the eve of a City Council investigation into their actions. Mayor Hinchey already has paid the $1,945 in reimbursement for her trip.

Their departures led the City Council to appoint two new utilities commission members, Republicans Michael Goldblatt and Robert Staley. A third member, Stewart Peil, was appointed in March, leaving the five-member commission with little experience.

At the start of the utilities commission meeting, several speakers urged the commission to clamp down on NPU management to restore public trust in the city-owned utility. Ethics Commission member Chris Dixon urged the commission to accept all the recommendations in the report and said he was “shocked” to learn during the ethics hearing that NPU currently does not have a written travel policy.

Resident Scott Harrington, a recent critic of NPU management, said Bilda should be fired and Sinko demoted to below management level. He said reimbursements for the Kentucky Derby trips should go into a fuel assistance program to help low-income ratepayers. Harrington said if the two NPU officials refuse to pay, NPU should lien their properties as it does for customers with overdue payments.

Linda Bertelson, a newly appointed alternate to the Ethics Commission, said she hopes the new commission exercises more control over the utility management and questions rates, expenses, proposed infrastructure improvements and actions by NPU leaders.

“This board is supposed to be managing this utility,” Bertelson said. “The previous board just went along with everything.”

c.bessette@theday.com