We cover the controversy surrounding the appointment of the Salisbury City Council's newest member, Melissa Holland. At Monday's City Council meeting, many residents expressed their outrage that Ms. Holland was selected behind closed doors to fill a vacant Council seat left by former Council President, D'Shawn Doughty, thus denying District 2 residents a voice as to who will represent them. The Council also voted to elect Angela Blake as Council President and April Jackson as VP. There were far more qualified and civically engaged applicants to fill the vacant Council seat, so why was Ms. Holland selected? Was racial or gender bias involved? Did Angela Blake and her compadre, Michele Gregory, engineer the selection to assure Blake's ascension to the council presidency? You'll have to watch to find out the answers, but I will tell you that the whole deal smells worse than a fish market in August.

We also cover the overflow crowd that attended Monday's council meeting to protest the recent arrest of Keonte Bratten, a young African-American businessman, following a routine traffic stop. Mr. Bratten, a recent widower, was accompanied by his two young sons at the time, but the situation escalated for reasons that remain unclear. We discuss the known details and question whether or not the situation was handled appropriately.

Accountability is the bare minimum that our community should expect from public officials. Both have been denied in terrible ways the past week based on what happened to Mr. Keonte “Pep Pep” Bratten and what happened with the entire community of district 2 being denied a voice in the selection of the new city council member.

Please note the time stamps below and consider sharing for the community’s awareness:

0:19 Swearing in of new councilmember Melissa Holland

1:45 Selection of President and Vice-President Controversy

3:57 Melissa Holland tips her hand

4:48 Lack of Community Representation for District 2

6:18 Natalie St. Phard denied interview/public comments

7:58 Jermichael Mitchell’s application/public comments

11:00 Shore Progress politicians' empty promises

14:29 Keonte Bratten’s interaction with the SBY Police

15:56 Horace Bratten Jr’s Comments

17:15 The importance of accountability

19:30 The Next steps

21:06 The need for election reform

25:08 SBY Council leadership crisis