Attempts at Democratic Reform To some residents of the Florida capital, the junta was a poor substitute for the town council (cabildo), a venerable political institution with permanent standing. In most areas of the Spanish Empire the cabildo was the local governing body, consisting of two popularly elected magistrates (alcaldes) and four to six councilors (regidores). Its functions included distribution of land, imposition of a few selected local taxes, provision for police, regulation of holidays, inspection of jails and hospitals, granting of building licenses, and other local duties. Sometimes the cabildo served judicially as an appeal body for the local court system. Usually the deliberations of the town council were secret, but in emergencies it often became an open meeting (cabildo abierto). In extreme crises residents of the town met in common assembly to discuss and to vote on a course of action very similar to the town meeting system in colonial Massachusetts. The cabildo made only one brief appearance in Florida. Pedro Menendez de Aviles established a town council in Saint Augustine almost immediately after he arrived and used it as a governing body while he was absent from the colony. When most of the original migration left Florida in 1570, however, the cabildo disappeared and did not reappear despite periodic agitation for its revival. (Tepaske GSF)