Committee members said they remain troubled by Ball's termination, but most feared that even if they successfully challenged the governor in court, a victory would be temporary at best.

State law allows the governor to nominate a director but is silent on whether he can remove someone from that position.

However, a successful court challenge of Ball's firing likely would prompt the Legislature to act quickly to change the law to return power to the governor, Committee of Consumer Services chairman Dee Jay Hammon said. "Then we would be right back to where we are now."

Betsy Wolf, a utility ratepayer advocate for the Salt Lake Community Action Program, cast the lone vote in favor of suing Huntsman. She believes the committee may have prevailed in court.

Wolf and other committee members expressed their thanks to Ball, who was fired abruptly March 9 after Huntsman's transition team determined he fought too aggressively to keep utility rates low for consumers.

The committee said it intends to cooperate with the Governor's Office to find a suitable replacement for Ball, but wants to be able to weigh additional candidates against politically connected Leslie Reberg, a former utility lobbyist Huntsman identified as his choice for the vacant post.

Consumer advocates criticize Reberg for her efforts in 2000 to help push anti-consumer legislation, House Bill 338, through the Legislature. The bill was designed to protect US West's bottom line at the expense of its customers.

However, during a Monday public hearing on Ball's firing and Reberg's nomination, Reberg tried to distance herself from her work on behalf of the giant telecommunications company.

Lobbying was a minor part of her public service career, Reberg said, and she should not be judged entirely by one 45-day legislative session.

Yet in announcing Reberg as the choice to fill the vacant director's post, the Huntsman administration boasted that her credentials include "several years as US West community relations manager at which time she played a key role in development and passage . . . of the company's public policy initiative, HB338."

Consumer advocate Claire Geddes said Reberg's support of that bill argues against her appointment to replace Ball.

"To this day [Reberg] doesn't view HB338 as anti-consumer," Geddes said. "And if we have someone in that position who doesn't know the difference, we're all in trouble."

Reberg, however, said when she worked for US West, she declined to support HB320, the controversial Questar-backed bill that would have abolished the Committee of Consumer Services and was assigned other duties.

Following the meeting, Reberg declined to discuss her current view of HB338.

US West's former top Utah executive, Ted Smith described Reberg as an able manager. However, he stopped short of expressing support for her nomination.

Monday's public hearing wasn't without its lighter moments.

While discussing Ball's dismissal - he was given 30 minutes to clean out his desk, then escorted off state property - one speaker wryly remarked Utah is lucky to have an experienced former diplomat as its governor.

Laughter erupted.