For Huntsman, Ball's March 9 dismissal is nothing more than a transitional change and the prerogative of the state's chief executive. For consumers, though, the absence of a hard-nosed advocate fighting on their behalf in rate cases could lead to drastic increases on their monthly utility bills.

Bill Martin, a member of Huntsman's transition team who recommended Ball's termination, described the former director as a "pit bull" - dogmatic and uncompromising in his representation of consumers. Those traits, he said, didn't serve the state well.

"When you have someone like Ball going out and taking every last nickel off the table [for consumers], they are going to make enemies," Martin said.

And that included enemies within the Department of Commerce.

What Martin and other members of the transition team, and therefore the governor, may have failed to realize is that criticism of Ball has as much to do with job description as job performance.

The consumer services committee is under the umbrella of the Department of Commerce but outside its normal bureaucratic oversight. In other words, Ball and the committee do not answer to the commerce director like other division heads do. That autonomy has created widespread resentment within the department.

"Other than the members of the Committee of Consumer Services, we didn't find one person who had anything good to say about Roger Ball," Martin said. "There was unanimous sentiment from each of the division heads that the committee, and Ball in particular, caused a lot of problems within the Department of Commerce. We even heard the same thing from a member of the Public Service Commission (PSC)."

That shouldn't come as a surprise. Only those people suggested by then Commerce Department director Klare Bachman were interviewed by the transition team, and she recommended only employees or former employees who had problems with Ball.

Even PSC member Ted Boyer, who criticized Ball, previously served as commerce director until his appointment last year to the state's top utility regulatory body.

Little interaction: Over the years, the committee's independence frequently led to failed attempts by Commerce Department directors to gain increased authority over it.

"As I understand it, those tensions have been going on for a long time, well before Roger Ball ever showed up," said Stephen Mecham, a former chairman of the PSC now practicing law in Salt Lake City.

Mecham, who served on the PSC for six of the eight years Ball held his post, said that as an administrator, he had few, if any, run-ins with the consumer services director.

"Frankly, I didn't have a lot to do with him, and I doubt the other commissioners did either," Mecham said. "He was an advocate for the committee." Given the nature of utility regulation in the state, he added, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity to interact.

The Committee of Consumer Services was established in 1977 to stick up for small consumers who lack the money and clout to fight rate increase requests by big utilities.

However, it is only one of the counterweights on the regulatory balance scale that is used to set utility rates in Utah. Opposite the committee are the utilities, with their cadres of high-priced lawyers committed to one thing: securing the highest rates possible for the companies they represent. At the pivot point of the scale is the Utah Division of Public Utilities, which is charged with balancing the interests of consumers and utilities.

Holding the scale is the Public Service Commission, charged with adjudicating rate cases and providing a fair and balanced outcome for consumers and utilities alike.

Unlike the the Division of Public Utilities, the consumer committee's role - by law - is strictly that of an advocacy organization for consumers. And that leaves the director and committee members little leeway to consider the point of view of their utility adversaries.

The governor apparently has a different philosophy, believing the director should take a kinder, gentler stand in negotiating with the state's utilities. "I just want to have someone there who is going to be fair and balanced," Huntsman said during his monthly KUED news conference last week.

"That's just great," said Claire Geddes, a utility watchdog and consumer advocate who has publicly criticized the governor for firing Ball. "So now the governor wants the committee to be fair and balanced when dealing with the utilities. The [Division of Public Utilities] already is charged with being fair and balanced in its dealings with the utilities. And the utilities are pretty good at looking after themselves."

Possible successor: If Huntsman has his way, a former utility lobbyist will be looking after the consumer services committee's affairs. She is Leslie Reberg, a former employee of US West, which now operates as Qwest and is the state's largest telephone company. Reberg helped push a bill through the 2000 Legislature that protected US West's revenue at its customers' expense.

If Huntsman's goal is to shift regulation in Utah to favor the utility companies, then Reberg's nomination makes perfect sense, Geddes said.

Reberg, however, has vowed to be independent and not change the adversarial relationship between the committee and the utilities.

The Committee of Consumer Services likes to boast that it has saved Utah consumers more than $1 billion on their utility bills during its 28 years in existence, and that kind of success understandably creates friction with utilities and the lawmakers they lobby.

The current director of the Utah Commerce Department, Russell Skousen, characterizes Ball as a grandstander and downplays the committee's role in rate making.

"There were other parties involved in rate making," Skousen said, suggesting the $1 billion claim is overblown.

Martin, part owner of a Salt Lake City-based commercial real estate brokerage, said Ball's firing might diffuse some of the legislative animosity toward the committee.

"We were aware of how many legislators and the utilities felt," said Martin, acknowledging that the transition team never interviewed legislators or utility operators about Ball's performance.

If Huntsman had asked his transition team members to get a broader perspective on Ball's performance, they may have been surprised.

Qwest's Utah president, Jerry Fenn, said he never considered Ball to be an obnoxious advocate.

"If I were to describe Roger Ball, I would say he was zealous [in representing the committee]," Fenn said.

Earlier this year, Ball and Fenn disagreed over legislation designed to give Qwest the ability to freely set prices for most of its products. "He came to us and expressed some concerns the committee raised, and we were able to negotiate an amicable agreement," Fenn said.

Qwest agreed to cap the cost of basic home phone service and give the PSC the ability to intervene if it abuses its new pricing freedoms. As a result, the committee didn't oppose the bill even though some consumer advocates, such as Geddes, felt Qwest got off easy.

At his KUED news conference last week, Huntsman said he wanted to thank Roger Ball for his service. The governor's gratitude, however, didn't extend to giving him customary notice of termination. Ball was given 30 minutes to clear out his desk and then escorted out of the state's Heber Wells building in downtown Salt Lake City.

The Committee of Consumer Services will hold a public hearing from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Monday at the Heber Wells building, 160 E. 300 South, in Salt Lake City to get input on whether it should challenge Huntsman's dismissal of Ball.

The committee also will take testimony on whether it should approve Reberg's nomination.