Pat Ryan, the region’s freshman congressman, didn’t mince words last week.

In one of his first speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives, Ryan delivered a blistering condemnation of Central Hudson, a giant utility that has kept the Public Service Commission busy in recent years with a battery of consumer complaints. Things have not gone easily for the energy provider since it was acquired by the Canadian company Fortis several years ago.

Ryan, in his speech last Wednesday, called upon Central Hudson President and CEO Charles A. Freni Jr. to resign.

“For too long, Central Hudson has doubled down on its deflection, denial and deception,” Ryan said. “It’s time they do the right thing and bring in a new leader who will improve trust, fix these systematic problems and start the critical work to rebuild trust.”

The “systematic problems” are billing errors that have led to thousands of customers being overcharged by millions of dollars. Ryan cited a New York State Department of Public Service report that noted that Central Hudson’s billing system was “riddled with hundreds of programming errors” leading to some 5,000 customers not receiving their bills, 8,000 being overcharged and more than 30,000 whose autopay was billed incorrectly, costing them some $16 million.

This comes in the wake of a class action suit, filed last month in Dutchess County Supreme Court, alleging “a slew of deceptive and improper practices”…including failure to read customers’ meters, unlawfully withdrawing funds from consumers’ bank accounts and billing customers “exorbitant amounts” for electricity that was not received.

The utility has blamed most of the billing issues on a new system that went into effect in September of 2021. Based upon recent complaints, it appears that the system is still not working properly.

A change in leadership may or may not solve Central Hudson’s problems, but it is more than obvious that Central Hudson needs to do more than fix its billing problems. It also needs to rebuild public trust.