However, Ball's supporters urged the governor to leave the committee alone.

Beverly White of Tooele, a former Utah legislator who helped draft legislation that created the committee in 1977, said the legislative intent at the time was to make the committee "totally independent of politics."

"Let them do their work," White said. "Let them pick their help. Let them pick their leader, whoever that may be. If he's doing his job too good, don't fire him."

Claire Geddes, a longtime consumer advocate, said every resident of the state would be let down if the committee confirmed Reberg's appointment.

"Quite frankly," Geddes said, "it looks to me like what the governor wants, he doesn't want a watchdog, he wants a lap dog."

Reberg recounted that Geddes had told her to withdraw her name.

"I must admit I have considered doing that for the last week," Reberg said. "But if I did that I wouldn't be me. . . . I will not let anyone define me for their own purposes. I will not apologize for who I am or what I have been. I have always worked as hard as I know for what I believe in."

Ball, who worked 22 years for British Telecom as an engineer and in management positions, noted that the executive director position had morphed into "a rapidly decaying life cycle," where turnover in the position threatened the committee's ability to perform its statutory duties of protecting the interests of consumers and small businesses in utility rate cases.

Joe Ingles, the first administrative secretary of the committee, Ball said, served 16 years before he was fired by the newly elected Leavitt administration in 1993.

"I've managed eight years," Ball said. "If you just apply the kind of simple mathematical analysis, the next firing is going to come after the next gubernatorial election, regardless of who wins."

Ball said Utah statute was silent when it came to the firing of the director and urged the committee to sue the governor "on the grounds that he exceeded his powers."

"If this committee wishes to stand up for the independence and autonomy of the committee . . . this committee needs to sue the governor," Ball said. "That's the big decision today, not who's going to be the committee's director forward, but is this committee going to stand up for its independence and its autonomy by suing the governor or is the committee going to walk away?"

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com