BRADENTON BEACH – Former Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon lost his life Thursday evening to cancer.
After serving as a Planning and Zoning Board member and a city commissioner, Shearon was elected mayor when he defeated incumbent Mayor John Shaughnessy in the 2013 city elections.
Shearon’s signature accomplishment as mayor was guiding the construction of the $1.4 million Bridge Street Pier completed in early 2015 and co-funded by Manatee County.
Shearon and Police Chief and Pier Team Facilitator Sam Speciale worked together on the pier replacement project and later envisioned the new floating dock that now sits next to the pier.
While in office, Shearon had some favorite sayings that included, “It is what it is.”
When Shearon and the other commission members disagreed and couldn’t find common ground, Shearon often said, “We just agree differently on things.”
When describing a challenging or labor-intensive effort, Shearon often said, “It’s like eating an elephant: one bite at a time.”
During Shearon’s first term in office, Commissioner Janie Robertson was his most reliable commission ally, but the mayor frequently lacked the majority support of the commission as a whole. This hindered Shearon’s ability to pursue projects he believed beneficial to the city, including his long-desired, never-realized goal of establishing a managed mooring field south of the pier. He also proposed a never-pursued parking garage as a companion project to a mooring field.
Toward the end of his second year in office, Bradenton Beach voters removed Shearon from office and replaced him with Vice Mayor Jack Clarke as a result of the May 19, 2015 recall election.
Undaunted by the recall results, Shearon sought to reclaim the mayor’s seat in the general election later that year that resulted in he and Clarke receiving the exact same number of votes. After a recount produced the same results the following day, Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett asked Clarke and Shearon to draw playing cards to determine the race winner.
In that now-infamous tie-breaker, Shearon drew an ace of clubs to best the 10 of clubs Clarke drew. Shearon then served a full two-year term as mayor before being defeated by former mayor John Chappie in the 2017 city elections.
During his second term in office, Shearon supported and had the support of the residents who would form the Concerned Neighbors of Bradenton Beach (CNOBB) neighborhood group in 2017.
During and after his time as mayor, Shearon, who was legally blind, enjoyed his daily walks around the city with his faithful guide dog, Reece.
Shearon is survived by his longtime life partner Tjet Martin. In addition to assisting Shearon with his visual challenges, Martin oversees the operations of the Linger Longer resort that also served as the couple’s beachfront home.
Reflections from others
County Commissioner Carol Whitmore had this to say about the late mayor: “Bill was a friend to my husband and I. I knew Bill as a patient of my husband’s and we later worked together in Island politics, which is always interesting. He was a good guy who loved his city and loved life. Bill accomplished a lot with his disability. I learned so much about the value of working dogs and blindness. I will miss the fiery redhead who had a passion that many found hard to understand. My thoughts and prayers are with the love of his life, Tjet Martin, and with his family.”
Lt. John Cosby, from the Bradenton Beach Police Department, said, “Bill had a good sense of humor and he definitely liked to do things his own way.”
Speciale said, “It was tough sometimes to work for Mayor Shearon, but it was easy to work with him. He had his own ideas about what he wanted, but if you could show him a different way, he was open to that. If you showed him respect, he respected you back.”
