Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey says he couldn’t believe the number waiting for him when he viewed his Central Hudson utility bill last year.

“I jumped back from the computer and I actually grabbed my heart, because I literally almost went into a heart attack," Harvey said.

His bill was more than $700,000, a far cry from the usual $600-$700 charge. This type of billing error was felt by many in CenHud's coverage area.

According to a report from the New York State Public Service Commission, thousands of the company's utility customers faced billing errors, including large automatic withdrawals and inflated bills, as the company changed its billing system.

The investigation, and Central Hudson’s claim that any issues have since been sorted, prompted Rep. Pat Ryan to call for Charles Freni, the company’s CEO, to resign.

“It's clear that they have to take accountability," Ryan said. "They've continued to deflect and deny and I think deceived the public about this. And that is a leadership failure.”

Harvey says that at the height of these errors, he’d receive three to four calls from constituents a week.

“They don't understand their billing," the Newburgh Democrat said. "They got estimate billing, and now on the bill it shows estimated billing and the actual billing. And those things are conflicting.”

Ryan says he will also look to take broader steps to protect consumers from this kind of thing happening again.

“[There's] a need to take much broader action on this," he said. "For example, the merger of Central Hudson, a decade ago, was approved at the federal level by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And that's one of the several angles on this that I'll continue to work.”