BREA

Shortly after two new councilmen took their seats for the first time Monday, the City Council locked horns on whether Bev Perry should be the new mayor pro tem.

Showing signs of the schism on the new council, Steve Vargas and Roy Moore--who defeated incumbents Burnie Dunlap and Glenn Parker in a hotly contested election earlier this year--rejected Perry’s nomination. But Perry’s “yes” vote as well as those of colleagues Lynn Daucher and the new council-elected Mayor Marty Simonoff garnered Perry her new position.

Perry, Dunlap and Parker were in office during the city’s controversial redevelopment plans, which angered some business owners.