ALTHOUGH WE CERTAINLY APPLAUD Dufferin County's initiative in having installed an effective public address system in the historic but imperfectly acoustical, centuryold county courtroom, we have to suggest that county councillors need to be trained on how to go about using it.

Orangeville Mayor Rob Adams and Mono Deputy Mayor David Baldwin tend to lean back in their chairs often while speaking, and paying no heed to the fact that the lights on their microphones are not lighting.

They should be taught to hold the microphone close if they wish to sit back, or simply to sit up and talk generally in the direction of the mike. They don't seem to be completely non-directional

Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson - quite properly - stands when he addresses the council and/or the chair. But in so doing he is not speaking for the benefit of the microphone. He is unwittingly not using the system provided for the benefit of the public. Yet we cannot criticise the Shelburne mayor. He speaks loudly enough, and clearly enough, that he can be heard and understood with or without amplification.

Mulmur Deputy Mayor Sue Snider speaks such that her microphone light comes on. She tends to speak too quickly, such that her words become lost in the public gallery.

Orangeville Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock usually speaks within earshot of the mike, but at one point last Thursday night he attempted to make a motion that would have been ultra vires for the council that night, but it was impossible to know in the gallery what his motion was all about.

That said, the sound system is great, and we admire the county for having installed it. We would be thrilled if the prosecutors and defence lawyers at Ontario Superior Court hearings and trials chose to use it, rather than arguing out of earshot of the gallery.

Neither the county council nor the courts can be considered "transparent" if they have not been diligent in their efforts to be heard and understood by the public and the media.

If the councillors and the lawyers don't wish to speak into the microphones, we would suggest that each and every one of them be required to wear one of those little ones that attach to themselves, such that no matter where you turn, or what you do, every word you speak is broadcast on the public PA system.

This would be in keeping with Canada's attitudes favouring "transparency."