This past year The Day has written numerous stories concerning the lavish Derby trips repeated by the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative (CMEEC), a utility agency supporting several town utilities. The trips were carried out over several years at the time of the Kentucky Derby and included a number of town utility members, family, friends, and officials and expending huge costs. Most newspaper articles described the trips as designed to provide team building − supposedly to increase the education, background and improvement of the functions of CMEEC.

The articles indicate that this was not really the purpose of the trips; they were not a technical but a social get together. Ethical procedures became the main story of the travel trips.

The latest article, “Parting thoughts from CMEEC founder,” (Jan. 1), implies that goals of the agency were altered overtime, and the intention of the founder of the agency was to form a cooperative committee to better improve the lower cost of purchasing electricity for the local homeowners. Obviously something has gone astray. A re-organization with priorities, goals, and rules for a stricter agency are necessary to restore its important function. 

Donald E. Leone Sr.

Norwich