Norwich needs new ratepayer representative to CMEEC panel

Post aims to increase public oversight of utility cooperative

Norwich — The City Council is looking for a new ratepayer representative to the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative board of directors as that board is in the midst of investigating the indictments of top staff on public corruption charges.

The city’s ratepayer representative, Republican Rashid Haynes, has moved to Waterford and resigned. Haynes was the first Norwich ratepayer representative to the CMEEC board, a position created in a 2017 state law aimed at increasing public oversight and transparency of the utility cooperative.

CMEEC came under public fire for hosting lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby for four years for top staff, board members, their families and dozens of invited guests. The trips, along with a trip to a West Virginia luxury golf resort and souvenirs and gifts to participants, were the focus of two federal indictments that charged CMEEC CEO Drew Rankin, Chief Financial Officer Edward Pryor and three former CMEEC board members, Norwich Public Utilities

General Manager John Bilda, and board member James Sullivan of Norwich and Edward DeMuzzio of Groton.

Rankin and Pryor are on unpaid leave, while Bilda was removed from the CMEEC board. He was placed on paid leave by the Norwich utilities commission pending internal investigations underway at both organizations.

A five-member investigation committee is expected to report its findings to the full CMEEC board in January and to make recommendations on Rankin’s position at that time. Pryor already has announced plans to retire Jan. 1.

Norwich Alderwoman Stacy Gould, chairwoman of the council’s Appointments/Reappointments Committee, said the committee will take applications through the online form on the city’s website and will interview interested residents for the ratepayer representative position.

Along with the need to attend daytime meetings that often last two hours or longer, Gould said she would be looking for someone who does not have a conflict of interest. Although not part of the indictments, Sullivan, the former chairman of both CMEEC and the Norwich utilities commission, represented lobbying clients that contracted with CMEEC and voted on those contracts.

Alderman Joseph DeLucia, a member of the appointments committee, said applicants should have some knowledge of CMEEC’s role to purchase wholesale electric power for Norwich, but would not need to be a utility expert, but “just a working understanding of what CMEEC is supposed to do on our behalf.”

DeLucia said he also would like the ratepayer representative to report more frequently to the City Council than once a year, as the previous resolution creating the position stated.

Mayor Peter Nystrom also said he hopes for more frequent reporting, suggesting the representative provide quarterly updates.

Gould said she also will look for someone who is not “out to get” CMEEC or participants of the Kentucky Derby trips. She said some applicants in the initial selection process a year ago expressed those goals and were not seriously considered for the position. At the Nov. 15 annual meeting, the CMEEC board reappointed Chairman Kenneth Sullivan, Vice Chairman Ron Gaudet and Secretary Louis Demicco, all of whom attended the Kentucky Derby trip at least in part.

“This is not about you ‘getting somebody,’” Gould said. “If you do ‘get somebody,’ does that mean your job is over and you’ll want to get off the board?”