Founding a town automatically meant creating a municipal government and governing body. There was an active city council in St. Augustine from the first day, and corresponding ones in San Mateo and Santa Elena, with regidores and justices (alcaldes) named by the adelantado. When these first officials had served their terms they were replaced by election; their offices had been elective in the Indies since 1523. [Note 29: general cabildo, Santa Elena 2/27/1576] It has often been written that there was no cabildo in Florida after the departure of Pedro Menendez. [Not 30: Chatelain says that the form of cabildo continued, but without vitality.] AN444 It is true that there was no municipal government house, no complement of municipal bailiffs and justices after the first 20 years or so, and perhaps no separate chest for municipal revenues, but a cabildo did exist, serving as both the council for the “noble and loyal city of St. Augustine,” and the “assembly of the republic” (ayuntamiento de la republica). [Note 31: Acclamation of Philip V 1/7/1702; Gov. Marques Cabrera 6/14/1681] Before council memberships were made venal in the Indies, the officials of the exchequer in a capital city automatically sat as regidores on its cabildo. In Florida this privilege was never revoked; cabildo memberships were awarded concurrently with titles to treasury office and did not become separately salable. [Note 32: Bartolome de Arguelles 11/2/1598 and titulos of regidor to Juan de Posada 4/17/1592 and to the treasury officials accompanying Narvaez and De Soto (2/15/1527, 5/4/1537, and 10/5/1537). Parry says that council memberships in the Indies became generally venal in 1591, but Council re Baltasar del Castillo y Ahedo 4/26/1580 shows that those in Havana had been given a money value earlier.] The most exceptional thing about the 17th century cabildo in Florida is that except for the royal officials there were no regidores, none elected by the cabildo and none appointed by the governor. This is why the council had no need of separate headquarters, separate meetings, or even a separate chest or book of resolutions. Cabildo membership was exactly the same as that of a general treasury council, down to the ex-officio notary, and the busy royal officials saw no point in distinguishing between the two except on formal occasions. (Bushnell KC)