A federal magistrate has chastised Yellowstone Pipeline and ConocoPhillips for failing to negotiate in good faith with Helena city and school district officials in a dispute over the cost of trees the companies cut along Custer Avenue and at Capital High School in the spring of 2008.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong, in an order issued Friday, said the pipeline companies sent an employee who didn’t have full settlement authority to a conference earlier this month, making the process “unilaterally … unfair and unproductive.”

He required the companies to pay the full costs of the city’s and school district’s time in preparing for and traveling to and from the Nov. 13 conference in Missoula. He also ordered the companies to pay officials’ preparation and travel costs for a future, as-yet-unscheduled settlement conference.

Strong noted the companies also could be liable for costs related to a hearing tentatively set for Dec. 11 in Great Falls, where the companies have the option to argue against paying the fees.

The city and school district last year sued the companies, alleging they hired workers to illegally trespass and cut 55 trees — including mature willows, box elders, Siberian elms and Russian olive trees ranging from several inches thick to nearly 5 feet in diameter. The city lost 32 trees, valued at $40,260 by a professional arborist, and the school district lost 23 trees valued at $67,225.

Because the claim was higher than $75,000, Yellowstone Pipeline and ConocoPhillips exercised their right to remand the lawsuit to a federal court, which ordered the settlement conference. But the companies sent one employee who had no power to settle litigation and a “strictly limited” settlement authority that was substantially less than the amounts in discussion, Strong wrote.

“(The companies) made it impossible to negotiate unless settlement was on their preordained terms,” he wrote. “Their representative had no authority and no discretion to even consider the merits of offers made.”

The city and school district, meanwhile, “arrived at the settlement conference prepared and authorized to negotiate in good faith,” Strong said.

Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com