Although the city of Missoula won its court case to take over the Mountain Water Company, it still hasn’t convinced Mountain Water Company employees to sign up to work as city employees. Attorney Gary Zadick represents those employees and responds to Mayor John Engen’s recent statements that he is optimistic the employees will work for the city.

“The employees are likewise optimistic that the city will be true to his word that it wants to employ them all under the terms the mayor testified to at trial and what has been exchanged... I don't want to go into those details,” Zadick said. “We’ve had some discussions, they’ve been fairly limited so far I hope they continue here and be ongoing.”

Zadick says that the employees were hoping to have already reached some sort of agreement with the city, but that there hasn’t even been a face-to-face meeting over the issue.

"We’re hoping to narrow the gap and reach a contract or agreement that is satisfactory for both sides, that’s our goal," Zadick said."They want to run the water system They’re proud of their service, they think they run a great system. We’re just trying to narrow the gap so that the employees in this forced condemnation takeover by the city aren't the ones that suffer all of the hurt."

Zadick says there have been a few over-the-phone discussions about the employee’s situation, but that there is still a gap between what the compensation they received from Mountain Water Company and what the city of Missoula is currently offering.

 

 

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