Andrew Osborne was sworn in as Midway’s newest city councilmember Tuesday night, Feb. 3, to fill the seat formerly held by Mayor Craig Simons.
Osborne was one of seven candidates who applied for the vacancy, and filling it turned out to be complicated.
After public interviews, the councilmembers and mayor cast secret ballots. The winner needed to secure at least three of the five votes.
The first round of voting was split. Applicant Thomas Wardle got two votes, while Osborne, Genene Probst-Miles and Stephanie Wilcox each received one vote.
City attorney Corbin Gordon explained Wardle was one of the two finalists, and the other would be determined by coin toss.
“I'm going to flip a coin,” he said. “Heads, you stay; tails, you're out. We will flip until we only have one person left, and then that person will then be submitted, and we'll have two finalists, and the council will vote again.”
A few coin tosses later, only Osborne and Wardle remained.
After a second round of voting, Osborne was declared the winner and immediately sworn in.
Osborne was a member of the Midway City Planning Commission and emphasized that experience during his interview.
He told the council what makes Midway unique is its rural character, with farm animals visible from Main Street and plenty of open space. When asked about the future of affordable housing, he said he cares more about preserving the town’s small-town character.
“What makes Midway unique is not affordable housing,” he said. “What makes it unique is that it is rural. And our emphasis, I think, as a commission and as city councilors – an emphasis on quality and not quantity.”
He also said open space is a priority. He’d like to see Midway’s boundaries for potential future annexation include the North Fields, especially given the Utah Department of Transportation’s plans for the bypass to use some of that land.
“I would focus on our Midway growth boundary and what that zoning could look like as we work to maintain the North Fields,” he said. “If we can get it as part of Midway, I like Midway’s version of what the North Fields would look like a lot more than Heber City’s.”
Osborne works as a project manager for custom home construction.
He will sit on the Midway City Council until January 2028.
Midway’s selection process Tuesday closes out an atypical election cycle in the Wasatch Back.
Park City also filled a council vacancy after a sitting councilmember was elected mayor in a seven-vote race. Meanwhile, in Charleston, a recount confirmed that a write-in candidate became mayor by a single-vote margin.
