A governor-appointed board that oversees economic development in Utah is calling Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s administration "a regime" that demonstrates "an arrogance of power" in its overhaul of one state department.

During a Thursday meeting of the state Board of Business and Economic Development, several members voiced stinging criticism about Huntsman's makeover of the state Department of Community and Economic Development and the potential for more changes to come.

While the meeting's mood swung at times from amiable to rancorous, board members seemed ticked that the changes occurred without their advice or consent.

Those changes included the resignations last week of the department's executive director, David Harmer, and the director of the Division of Business and Economic Development, Jeff Gochnour, along with 30 other politically appointed members of the department.

While stressing that they want to work with Huntsman and are glad he has made economic development a priority, board members denounced the administration's makeover of the department.

Proposed changes — which would need legislative action — involve putting certain divisions into a new department overseeing the community and the arts, while business and economic development, tourism and economic development-related energy issues would become part of the governor's office.

High-level business recruitment would be handled by Huntsman and his senior economic adviser, Chris Roybal. Other recruitment would be handled, at least in the short term, by the Economic Development Corp. of Utah or EDCU, which Roybal recently led.

"The governor wants to create obviously a new economic development team," Roybal told the board. "There are some cultural issues he'd like to see changed."

Some political appointments over the past 12 years had "taken on a bit more of a career-government-type focus," he said, adding that political appointees should realize their duties will be short-term.

"Part of it is the elimination of a culture that we thought was not getting the job done. . . . We may agree to disagree, but I don't view that as a slap in the face to this board," Roybal said.

The new department co-managers are Ladd Christensen and Martin Frey. "They have no intent of being longtime state employees," Roybal said.

Board vice chairman Dell Loy Hansen said the officials who resigned were "very empirically washed away" without any board consultation. He wondered if the board faced a similar fate, "so that we're not so surprised as those other honorable people were, clearly."

Roybal, however, said there are no plans to eliminate the board.

"Do you see where we might have a little lack of faith in that comment?" Hansen retorted, questioning whether the resignation process followed state law and saying that Christensen and Frey were "imposed" on the board without consultation.