JACKMAN — The state wilderness zoning board has elected a new chairman and approved a new staff director amid internal turmoil over a western Maine wind-power project that already has prompted two resignations.

At a heated meeting, the Land Use Regulation Commission spurned a re-election bid by LURC Chairman Stephen Wight and replaced him with Commissioner Charles O’Brien in a 4-2 vote.

The commissioners also confirmed the appointment of John Williams, the current head of the soon-to-be-dismantled Maine Waste Management Agency, as LURC’s first full-time director since last fall.

O’Brien acknowledged after Thursday’s vote that tensions exist among commission members and pledged that he would work to improve relations.

“If there are changes to be made … it will begin with me. I will do everything in my ability to keep this process fair and to keep every member informed,” he said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first since former LURC member James Sherburne and David Allender, one of two LURC staffers originally assigned to the wind project, resigned to protest alleged attempts by the King administration to use its influence to assure regulatory approval for the project.

At least two top officials in Kenetech Windpower Inc. are personal friends of Gov. Angus King, who has said he supports the California firm’s $200 million plan to erect as many as 639 turbines atop the Boundary Mountains that separate Maine from New Hampshire and Quebec. The turbines would generate 210 megawatts of electricity that Kenetech plans to sell to utilities.

Critics say the 1,100-acre development would threaten fragile mountain soils and endanger birds of prey that could be attracted to the 80- to 120-foot turbine towers.

When he resigned last week, Sherburne alleged that King’s conservation commissioner, Ronald Lovaglio, was improperly trying to engineer a favorable vote on the project by LURC.

Lovaglio replaced Allender and the other staffer assigned to the project, and Sherburne said Lovaglio made it clear to the staff that he expected the project to be approved. Lovaglio insisted he did not take sides, but said he did feel too much attention was being paid to criticism of the project.

The second LURC staffer who was removed from the project echoed Sherburne’s allegations in a letter to members of the commission that was published Friday by the Sun-Journal newspaper in Lewiston.

Fred Griffith, a senior project analyst, said the staff always believed the project would be approved and tried “to craft an approval which could stand up in court.” He said that proved to be impossible because Kenetech has provided so little information about the environmental implications.

Instead of trying to satisfy the legal requirements of its application, Kenetech has sought “a political solution” through its contacts in the new administration, Griffith said.

“I know that it may be politically difficult to deny the Kenetech application. However, I grew up believing that laws in this country apply to everyone equally … I do not believe that the laws should only apply to those who cannot afford slick lawyers or those who lack political connections,” he wrote.

LURC oversees development in Maine’s unorganized territories.