Conflicts with Carter may have been the norm but they were not personal, Utah officials say.

"In my 22 years in Congress regarding things with the corps, we had more run-ins with Brooks Carter than any single federal employee," said Hansen. "Yet in his defense, he was in a controversial position."

Still, Hansen recalls having to step in on behalf of municipal governments upset with Carter's decisions.

"We didn't try to move him, but I thought about it," Hansen said.

Bishop's chief of staff, Scott Parker, said Bishop and Carter did butt heads on issues but there's no reason to believe the move was because of the recent dispute over the wetlands battle in the Box Elder County town of Perry.

"Obviously there have been disagreements with Carter in the past," said Parker. "But the corps has said it officially planned the change so there is no reason to disbelieve that."

Fanselau said a couple of factors played into the decision to move Carter, none of which had anything to do with the fact that Carter is constantly in the regulatory hot seat.

"It's one of the most challenging and difficult positions," he said. "Almost any permit action . . . both sides of the fences aren't happy with it. The developers think we are being too strict and environmentalists think we're being too lenient."

But faced with a $270,000 shortfall in the regulatory office where Carter worked, the corps decided it needed to do some restructuring. The new position is a regional cost-shared program.

"Brooks Carter is one of the best in the business," Fanselau said. "The bottom line is regulators take heat on a regular basis, and Brooks' decision with Legacy Highway being one of them. So there's nothing new. The funding has been a challenge. And for quite some time we had been hearing complaints that the regulatory process takes too long. In the last four-to-six months we were looking at how to streamline the process."

Carter, who didn't respond to a request for an interview by press deadline, welcomes the new job, Fanselau said.

"Taking Brooks out of the hot seat is a good thing for him right now. He's really looking forward to spend the last couple of years (before retirement) creating new policies for agencies to help design more of an efficient process."

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E-mail: donna@desnews.com