Utility board representative will wait for next council

Ratepayer position is reform stemming from Derby trip controversy

Norwich — The City Council delayed action Monday on an ordinance to create the new state-mandated ratepayer representative to the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative board and agreed to turn over the process to the newly elected City Council, which will take office Dec. 5.

The current council’s Appointments/Reappointments Committee is still interviewing applicants for the position, Council President Pro Tempore and Mayor- elect Peter Nystrom said Monday. Additional interviews are planned for this evening, he said.

The council voted 6-1 to postpone action on the proposed ordinance until the Dec. 18 council meeting — the first business meeting of the new council to be sworn in Dec. 5. The appointment would be made on Jan. 2, with the appointment taking effect Jan. 15.

The ratepayer position is one of several reforms included in a revised state law that took effect Oct. 1 in the wake of a controversy that erupted last fall over CMEEC’s paid trips to the Kentucky Derby for dozens of cooperative staff, board members, their families and municipal leaders for four years. The appointee must be either a residential or commercial ratepayer of Norwich Public Utilities.

Other changes in the law call for a five-year forensic audit of CMEEC’s finances, a requirement that all CMEEC meetings and strategic retreats be held in Connecticut and that the state Consumer Counsel appoint a ratepayer advocate to that office.

During a public hearing on the ordinance prior to adoption Monday, residents suggested the appointee

should undergo ethics training prior to taking part in CMEEC business. Following the hearing, aldermen approved an amendment requiring the appointee to have taken the city’s online ethics training course and to have signed a document certifying he or she has received and read the city’s ethics code.

During the hearing, Democratic Alderman-elect Joseph DeLucia asked that the council delay the appointment until the new council takes office. He asked aldermen to recall that the previous City Council had been set to hire a new city manager, when newly elected Republican aldermen insisted the hiring be postponed until the new council took office in December 2015. City Manager John Salomone was hired by that new council.