Leaders for San Diego City Council committees announced.

There appeared to be a moment of optimism for San Diego city government last week as Mayor Todd Gloria and five new council members were sworn in to office.

They talked about rising out of these difficult times and coming together to move San Diego forward with vision.

But appearances can be deceiving.

The relative comity of the remote ceremony was bracketed by a tense, weeks-long campaign for City Council president beforehand and by an explosive council meeting later that day to determine who would win the job — Dr. Jennifer Campbell or Monica Montgomery Steppe, both Democrats.

Campbell received a bare majority of votes following hours of comment from hundreds of people — the vast majority of whom beseeched council members to back Montgomery.

Any notion the bitterness would subside was challenged the next day. A nascent recall effort targeting Campbell over her seemingly unrelated proposal on short-term vacation rentals appeared to get a boost from people backing Montgomery, who accused influential interests of working to deny her the council presidency.

Barbara Bry, the former council member who lost to Gloria, jumped into the fray, laying out her rationale for supporting the recall on KUSI. A bipartisan group of political professionals, including political consultant Dan Rottenstreich and Chris Wahl of Southwest Strategies, then held a conference call Monday to discuss an anti-recall campaign.

The City Council has never been more Democratic nor, at least in recent memory, has it seemed more riven by political division.

Democrats picked up two seats on the council for an 8-1 majority, and Gloria was elected to replace termedout Republican Kevin Faulconer.

Who becomes council president, and the politicking behind it, is usually an insiders game. The president controls the council agenda and makes committee appointments — significant internal powers, but usually not scintillating stuff to the general public.

But this dispute became a proxy for struggles over larger issues, from social justice and police reform to housing development and short-term vacation rentals.

A complex tangle of intraparty politics brought Democrats to this point.

The Democratic Party of San Diego County endorsed Montgomery for the post, but obviously a number of Democrats wanted Campbell.

There also was a split in organized labor. Rank-andfile members pushed the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council to back Montgomery. Despite the endorsement, some inf luential union leaders weren't on board.

In 2018, Montgomery defeated then-council Presi