Park City’s elected officials on Thursday evening selected a Prospector resident for a midterm appointment to the City Council, making the selection after tense discussion and two rounds of split votes. Molly Miller emerged as the top contender from a field of 10 Parkites who sought to serve t he nearly two years left in the term vacated by Ryan Dickey as he became the mayor. The term ends in early January of 2028. The seated members of the City Council split their vote 2-2 between Miller and former mayoral candidate Jack Rubin, leaving Dickey to break the tie in support of Miller. The selection was made after a first round of voting that resulted in the same tie. City Councilors Tana Toly and Diego Zegarra supported Miller in both rounds. The other two members of the City Council — Ed Parigian and Bill Ciraco — twice backed Rubin in the voting on Thursday. Rubin narrowly lost the mayoral contest against Dickey in November. There are expected to be ramifications for the governance of Park City with the selection of Miller, with that possibility seeming to intensify the atmosphere in the City Council chambers on Thursday. There is a thinking among some in the community that the selection will create a majority voting bloc on the City Council involving Miller, Toly and Zegarra. That scenario would curb the influence of Parigian and Ciraco, the thinking goes. There appeared to be a crowd of Rubin supporters in the audience, and testimony from the public prior to the selection was weighted in favor of the former mayoral candidate’s application. Someone in the audience at one point loudly said, “Shame on you three” in reference to the mayor, Toly and Zegarra. Dickey quickly called for “decorum in the chambers” and told the person he was out of order. The mayor, in describing his support for Miller, said she has lots of courage and that there is not a current elected official who lives in Prospector. Dickey said it is “almost unthinkable that we don’t have that.” Parigian, though, delivered pointed comments, saying the result of the selection process was expected even before the deliberations. He described the result as a continuation of the most recent four years of Park City politics. Parigian said the City Council will start its work with a “dysfunctional group.” “This is ridiculous,” Parigian said. Miller is scheduled to be sworn into office on Tuesday. The selection capped a political season that stretched for nearly 10 months and was among the most strained in Park City in decades. Former Mayor Nann Worel in the spring announced she would not seek reelection. Dickey and Rubin were the only two candidates for the office, while the City Council contest drew an eclectic field. One of the City Council candidates — John Kenworthy — ultimately ended his campaign early amid concerns about the tenor of the politicking. The razor-thin margin in the mayoral results extended the contest for nearly three weeks after Election Day as the results of a recount were finalized. The post Prospector resident appointed to Park City Council amid tension at the Marsac Building appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less