Huntsman clearly has a vision and is wasting no time redirecting state operations in order to realize it. But his method reveals a high-handed idealism nurtured by years of observing a strong-willed and dynamic father who built a billion-dollar international business, and shaped by his own growth as a U.S. ambassador.

But Huntsman's bulldog approach is about to run into something for which even a seasoned industrialist and diplomat might not be prepared.

Welcome, Mr. Governor, to the Utah Legislature.

Huntsman's dismissal of several department heads and more than 30 at-will employees in the Department of Community and Economic Development is "standard operating procedure," his chief of staff, Jason Chaffetz, said last week.

But the way the department heads and many of their underlings were notified is not standard operating procedure. And if Huntsman approaches the legislative branch as he did state employees, his good name, good will, voter mandate and all the political capital in the world won't matter.

Several department heads received terse notes alerting them to their dismissals and warning that their desks and offices must be cleared out within a day. Staffers of some of the departed directors lamented they didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

The economic development employees so unceremoniously scrapped last week were instructed to submit letters of resignation for consideration on Wednesday, then told in a group session overseen by an armed guard that their resignations were accepted and they should clear out their desks.

When Gov. Mike Leavitt succeeded fellow Republican Norm Bangerter in 1993, he replaced several department heads as well. But he personally called those directors to break the news and thanked them for their service.

Chaffetz told The Salt Lake Tribune that it wasn't practical for Huntsman to have a personal chat with each dismissed employee. But Huntsman didn't even have personal chats with the half dozen or so department heads ousted last week. At least two of them were given the news by their successors.

Bangerter worked closely in 1985 with his predecessor, Democrat Scott Matheson, to make that transition as smooth as possible.

When Chaffetz told the employees that the economic development functions would be operated from the governor's office, several of the staffers mentioned that some divisions and programs are established by state statute and cannot be buried without legislative approval.

The administration seems confident that whatever legislation is needed will be passed.

And there is the rub.

Huntsman appears to be moving toward privatization of the state's business marketing program - which isn't necessarily a bad idea. He should be applauded for his demonstrated determination in clearing the way for such a transition in just the first few days of his administration.

He has put Chris Roybal, who has headed the private non-profit Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCU), in charge of his administration's economic development program. That, plus reports - that have found the ears of some legislators - that Roybal is just on leave from the private sector while he helps Huntsman change the course, will undoubtedly fluster a significant faction of the Legislature, particularly the rural representatives and senators.

State officials, under the Leavitt administration, tried to put more of the state's economic development duties in the hands of EDCU in 1998, when Dave Winder, then Community and Economic Development director, proffered an ambitious shift from public to private efforts to attract more businesses to Utah.

The Legislature, especially the rural folks, went berserk. They felt EDCU, which has partnerships with several counties and cities that mostly are on the Wasatch Front, would ignore rural Utah when trying to bring more business into the state. The effort promptly died.

The paranoia among legislators representing Utah's outback has not waned and Huntsman should expect his relationship with Roybal to be viewed with suspicion. Especially if he approaches lawmakers in the same arms-length, dictatorial way he dismissed his own employees.

Meanwhile, watch for another dismissal in the coming weeks that is bound to raise some eyebrows. Sources say the new administration plans to do away with the state's Washington, D.C., office, which has acted as a liaison between state officials, the Utah congressional delegation and the federal administration for decades, and replace it with a contract lobbyist.

Stay tuned.