It seems the Otsego County board can’t even have an improper meeting properly.

Not that they should have improper or illegal meetings at all.

The Administration Committee of the Board of Representatives and other some other board members met Monday with officials of the state Comptroller’s Office. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that the purpose may not have been too pleasant for reps and Treasurer Myrna Thayne.

The meeting was held to discuss a pending audit of the county Treasurer’s Office that some reps have said is sharply critical of the office and of board members charged with overseeing that department.

We know these kinds of meetings occur regularly for most municipalities, and probably most aren’t even announced in advance. Even if residents and media did know about them, they likely would not attend.

But Otsego County this year is a lot different, primarily because of the 2007 $2.5 million budget snafu that led to over-taxation. So, it is only natural that we might want to send a reporter to a committee meeting with state financial officials about a county audit.

Normally known as ``exit audits,’’ such meetings are supposed to be open to the media and public, according to the New York State Committee on Open Government. Beyond that, the session was announced as a meeting of the board’s Administration Committee, whose gatherings are covered by the Open Meetings Law.

County officials had said in advance that they would close meeting, even though discussion of an audit is not a legal reason to bar the public and media.

As it turned out, when our reporter entered the meeting room at the meeting time Monday morning, county reps didn’t have to illegally close the meeting. The official from the state Comptroller’s Office did their dirty work by ordering the reporter to leave, insisting that ``exit audit’’ meetings transcend the Open Meetings Law.

Meanwhile, our county reps sat there and listened in silence. All involved, both state and county, should be embarrassed and ashamed.

We have to wonder what would have occurred if several over-billed taxpayers had decided to attend the meeting to get the lowdown on how county government has been managing its finances. Would they have been ordered to get out?

Our county leaders are treading a narrow and dangerous path toward their political futures. Look after what’s happened over the last six months: - Tax bills over-charging the county’s taxpayers by about 22 percent. - The Treasurer’s Office not filing forms on time, though fortunately there was no financial penalty. - The Otsego Manor administrator missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements this year by not filing paperwork on time.

- And now the county possibly could end the year owing a couple hundred thousand dollars to MOSA because of missing its trash quota. Let’s face it. It’s time the public and taxpayers were shown more respect than to be improperly barred from meetings.