Although the public exchanges may not have been very pleasant to read, the public should be glad that at least some county legislators - besides official asbestos spokeswoman Ann Petrus - finally began speaking last week on the core issue of who should be accountable for the illegal asbestos removal from the county Board of Elections building last year.

But the person who should have the most information about this case continues to remain silent. County Legislature Chairman George Fearon has said very little about the asbestos issue since the investigation began last summer.

As a result, the public is learning details about what happened not from their elected officials, but from federal indictments and outside attorneys.

The time is now for Fearon to give a full public account of what happened with that boiler removal project at the BOE last February.

Federal prosecutors so far have said buildings and grounds worker John Chick knowingly violated asbestos handling laws, and then lied to investigators about certain aspects of the project. Chick is now prepared to plead guilty to one of the charges on which he was indicted, and his attorney says he plans to give a full accounting of who was directing him through the project.

Instead of making the public wait for more court papers - and possibly another indictment - to learn more about what happened, Fearon should come clean on behalf of the county. As chairman, he should know by now exactly who was involved in the decisions that were made. These were decisions that could have jeopardized people's health, and certainly put the county government in a vulnerable position with respect to liability.

Fearon needs to say who in county government knew there was asbestos in the building and when they knew about it. He needs to detail who gave Chick the approval to perform the work. And he needs to explain why he has been so quiet about the case all along.

The residents of this county deserve nothing less.