Then there were three: Bryan, Shaver, Bole

   Campaign 2014 for St. Augustine's mayoralty is shaping up to be a battle over city spending, with two mayoral candidates on the offense and incumbent  Mayor Joe Boles on the defense.

  Former County Commissioner Ken Bryan, "fed up with how our tax dollars are being spent," filed for the office last week, joining Nancy Shaver, who ferreted out the financial failure of the Picasso exhibit and inconsistencies in proposals for privately held coral growing and aquarium developments at Riberia Pointe. She says the City of St Augustine needs a better way to make decisions about spending.

   Boles, after City Manager John Regan gave an attorney $275,000 for a private 450 commemoration foundation that was never formed, called for city hall management by a staff trio with a budget of $338,000 a year, two-thirds of it for salaries. Bryan also cites "out of control unnecessary spending such as the M&M market purchased and sold at such a huge loss and the reduction or waiver of fees for the buyers which accounts for a waste of tax dollars."  

   Bryan lives in Davis Shores. An Air Force veteran, he's developed and taught courses in supervision, management, and organizational development, and was a deputy director for the Executive Office of the President at the White House and a Flagler College adjunct professor in the Public Administration Program.

   Shaver, a Lincolnville resident, is a marketing consultant working with Experian, a global information service in credit, marketing, and decision analytics.

   Boles is an attorney specializing in elder affairs.

 

 

   Throughout the biography Kelsey stresses that Drake was personally brave. But as a commander, sound strategic and tactical thinking were ignored when the opportunity for grabbing some easy plunder presented itself.

   The Francis Drake who emerges from Kelsey's biography is not the staunchly Protestant, generous hero who laid the foundations of the great traditions of the English navy. The real Drake was an opportunist in religion, and was at most conventionally pious. 

   While a brilliant corsair, Drake showed little aptitude for commanding a fleet. Personally brave, he was not a particularly good commander under whom to serve. He was callous toward the common seamen and played favorites with or bullied his officers.

   Drake never displayed integrity or openhandedness in the division of captured treasure. While many of Drake's raids were extremely successful, it was far more likely for a participant in one of them to end up dead than rich. Kelsey mentions tens of thousands of pounds of missing treasure that Drake probably kept for himself or the mighty ones that he favored with his gifts.

   These personality defects were widely known in Elizabethan England. His reputation actually came to deter many people from serving under him during the latter stages of his career. It obviously caused Queen Elizabeth to hold him at arm's length.

   How did the rather shady Drake acquire his image as a swashbuckling Protestant English hero? As Kelsey explains it, his Spanish enemies were actually his best allies. For them, Drake became the fearsome face of their English opponents. To attribute invincibility to him excused their own failures.

   Drake added to the legend by embellishing his role and his successes. Jacobean writers solidified that image in various books that appeared about Drake. After that the legend of Drake remained relatively moribund until its Victorian revival and the later contributions of Hollywood and twentieth-century popular culture.

Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate certainly kills Drake's reputation as a hero. 

 

   Image: Drake statue at his birthplace, Tavistock,and copied at Plymouth Hoe, England.