The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed two bills calling for greater restrictions on the mostly unregulated Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, including a five-year financial review by a forensic auditor, mandating all retreats and meetings be held in the state and that financial and governing documents be made public.

The legislation also calls for adding board members to the CMEEC board of directors appointed directly by the legislative bodies of member municipalities: city councils and boards of selectmen. CMEEC is owned by six member municipally owned utilities: Norwich Public Utilities, Jewett City Department of Public Utilities, Groton Utilities, Bozrah Light and Power and two Norwalk utilities.

Much of the legislation stemmed from the controversial trips to the Kentucky Derby hosted by CMEEC for dozens of board members, staff and numerous guests from 2013 through 2016 at a combined cost of $1.02 million. The trips were funded through CMEEC’s margin fund, revenues received mainly from nonmember sources but that also contained some member ratepayer funds.

The bills were met with stiff opposition by CMEEC CEO Drew Rankin, who sent a strongly worded email late Tuesday prior to the vote to state Sens. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and Paul Formica, R-East Lyme. Rankin accused state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, of launching a personal attack to inflict “pain and punishment” on Groton Utilities and CMEEC.

Osten said Senate leaders from both political parties are crafting an equally strongly worded letter to Rankin in response. Osten said she frequently receives pleas from constituents on specific bills on the eve of votes, but personal attacks are unacceptable.

“So we’re asking for an apology from Mr. Rankin to Sen. Somers, who he maligned,” Osten said, “and if he can’t control those urges to talk in a disrespectful fashion, he should resign and move on.”

In an email statement issued Wednesday evening on the votes, Rankin said CMEEC would continue to work with the legislators on the proposals and did not address Osten’s reaction to his initial email.

“We have worked with lawmakers throughout the process and expressed our concerns about how some reforms might affect operations,” Rankin wrote Wednesday night. “We understand the goals behind these proposed reforms and will work within any new parameters included in the final legislation and signed into law by the governor.”

Osten said the legislation would rein in the cooperative and ensure that saving money for member ratepayers would be its main focus.

“We have to get the public to trust utility companies again,” Osten said. “... Essentially we were just trying to turn back to where CMEEC was doing what its mission was, to provide electricity at a lower cost than elsewhere in the state. This incident that happened was a stain on a good company.”

Since news of the so-called strategic retreats to the Kentucky Derby became public last fall, state legislators, municipal officials — including the Norwich Ethics Commission — and the media have experienced difficulty obtaining information from the cooperative.

Somers said the legislation was designed to ensure that CMEEC operates with transparency and was never meant as a personal attack on the cooperative or any of its member utilities.

“Quite frankly, this is all about ratepayer dollars, and I’m looking out for the ratepayers,” Somers said. “I live in the City of Groton. I love the city. I have nothing against Groton Utilities. GU is not even involved in the conversation. It’s about CMEEC going on four Kentucky Derby trips.”

Formica said the bills provide protection to CMEEC member customers, who do not have the ability to find competitive utility providers as customers of privately owned utilities do.

“I am proud to stand with my fellow legislators and demand honesty and fair dealing,” Formica said in a news release Wednesday night. “These customers deserve answers. Unfortunately, the truth is we still don’t know the extent of these abuses. This organization can no longer remain indifferent to the public’s call for accountability.”

A second bill passed Wednesday pertains to CMEEC’s ongoing arbitration case with Wallingford Electric Division, which terminated a power supply agreement with CMEEC two years ago and has been engaged in a legal dispute over costs.

Both bills will be sent to the House of Representatives.

In his email to Osten and Formica, Rankin warned that the two bills with the proposed amendments would “destroy CMEEC’s ability to create significant value for all their customers and communities and will extract tremendous, tangible value from the very communities you serve.”

Rankin pledged that the legislation would be “steadfastly opposed and litigated by CMEEC and our six member municipalities for the contractual interference they represent.”

Along with criticism of Somers, Rankin wrote that Wallingford was trying to “exploit the legislative process to cover their poor business choices” and said the legislation would hurt all CMEEC customers.

“We all know this is nothing more than Senator Somers inflicting what personal based pain and punishment she can to Groton Utilities, the city of Groton and CMEEC in concert with Wallingford,” Rankin wrote.

Accompanying his email was a letter from CMEEC General Counsel Robin Kipnis expressing legal objections to the bills and offering to have CMEEC officials meet with Sen. Len Fasano, R-Wallingford, to discuss the specifics.

The bills passed Wednesday would require a five-year “forensic examination” of CMEEC finances by a forensic auditor. The audit findings and recommendations would be presented to members and would become public. CMEEC also would have to provide the General Assembly with annual reports on its board membership, meetings, audits and the list of employees and their salaries.

All CMEEC strategic retreats, meetings and public hearings would have to be held in Connecticut and would require prior approval by the board and contain business meetings with agendas, and lists of attendees would have to be made public along with meeting minutes within five days after each session.

“Such retreat or activity shall not include any entertainment or gifts of value other than that approved by the cooperative utility board,” the bill states.

c.bessette@theday.com