In a behind-the-scenes maneuver undertaken less than a week after Leslie Reberg's appointment was announced, the former US West lobbyist last week was removed as interim director of the state's top consumer advocacy organization for utility issues and replaced by Dan Gimble, chief of technical staff for the committee.
If the Committee of Consumer Services doesn't approve her appointment as permanent committee director, said Russell Skousen, the new head of the Utah Department of Commerce in the Huntsman administration, "it would have been a waste of time having her as interim director anyway."
Acting under orders from the governor, Skousen on March 9 fired Roger Ball, the committee's director of eight years, and replaced him with Reberg, whose name is anathema among many consumer advocates because she helped push a bill through the 2000 Legislature that enriched US West at its customers' expense.
Skousen said he and Huntsman still want Reberg to take over as director. Her appointment, though, must be approved by Committee of Consumer Services members: Franz Amussen, Kelly Casaday, Betsy Wolf, Ryan Atkinson, Kent Bateman and Dee Jay Hammon.
"We [Skousen and other state officials] met last week and determined that it would be better for everyone - the committee, its staff, consumers - if we slowed it down a little bit," Reberg said. "I hope that I get the chance to prove myself. We all want this to end well."
It may not.
At a Monday meeting, consumer watchdog Claire Geddes urged the committee to challenge the governor's authority to remove the director without committee members' consent.
"There is nothing in the statute that says the director serves at the pleasure of the governor," Geddes said. "If Governor Huntsman can fire our advocate with 30 minutes notice at any time without conferring with the committee, then any future director will serve the governor and whoever pulls his strings."
Skousen, however, argued the committee is independent on policy matters, but is not immune from government oversight. Along with the governor's power to appoint a director comes the authority to remove one if it is deemed necessary, he said. "It is Civics 101."
Ball's firing was reminiscent of the action taken by then-Gov. Mike Leavitt when he fired Joseph Ingles, who was administrative secretary for the committee when Leavitt took office.
At that time, the committee requested the Attorney General's Office provide an attorney to challenge the dismissal, but that plea for legal support was denied.
Utah businessman Stanley C. Harbuck, with the support of the committee, tried to challenge Leavitt's firing of Ingles on his own, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he did not have standing to bring the case.
Harbuck on Monday told committee members there are now provisions under Utah law that will allow the committee to hire a private attorney and get the legal fees picked up by the state if the attorney general declines to help.
"This is something that needs to be done, if only to settle the matter once and for all," Harbuck said after the meeting.
Express your opinion
The Committee of Consumer Services intends to hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the Heber Wells Building, 160 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City, to seek input on whether it should challenge Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. or accept his nomination of former US West lobbyist Leslie Reberg as the committee's new director.
A meeting room number has yet to be determined.
