We interrupt our regularly scheduled criticism of the absurd incompetence of the Otsego County Board of Representatives to ask the reps one small question.

What are you folks going to do about Edmond Marchi?

The board has been busy dealing with _ among many embarrassments _ a botched tax increase, a Legionnaires disease outbreak, a number of immature "I got you last" disputes with the county treasurer and a spanking by the state Comptroller’s Office for the county’s fiscal mismanagement.

With all that and more on their plates, now they’re being tapped on their shoulders by Mr. Marchi, who wants his job back as administrator of Otsego Manor, the county nursing home.

Marchi, you’ll remember, was arrested Jan. 7 in the town of Richfield after his car left a road and plowed into a cow fence. County Board members certainly weren’t pleased to learn that Marchi had been drinking.

But they stuck by him until he was found at the Manor on Feb. 5 with a blood alcohol level of .17 percent, more than twice the state’s limit for driving sober.

It turns out that Marchi had been charged three times with DWI before he was hired by the county board.

Before the decision to extend an offer was made, that little fact probably should have been discovered and vetted by the county manager ... except there is no county manager.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a majority of the county reps say they don’t need a professional to run things.

Well, now Marchi, who has been suspended without pay, has been through rehab and has hired a prominent lawyer to help him get his $85,176 per year job back.

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All of this leaves the county in a sticky situation, with basically three choices.

It can just give Marchi his job back and put in a contract clause that if he gets caught being drunk one more time, he will be fired.

It can fire him and fight it out in court with a lawyer who is an expert on the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and state human-rights laws that provide someone who is recovering from alcoholism and/or depression with rights that must not be abridged.

The ADA is a little fuzzy on whether alcoholism is considered "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.’’

Who knows, the county might win, but it would be a long and expensive court fight.

The third option is to give Marchi a bunch of money so that he goes away. That is what at least some members of the board would like to see happen.

Only time will tell how it will all turn out. Meanwhile, Mr. Marchi’s situation is just another fine mess the county-manager-less board has gotten the taxpayers into.