Joe McHaney is no longer the executive director of the Madras Aquatic Center Recreation District. He was fired Monday night by that body’s board of directors in what’s being called a “no-cause termination.” It’s way past time the public was let in on the secret that led to the firing.

While board members were tight-lipped in the wake of Monday’s meeting, McHaney’s lawyer was a bit less restrained, implying, at least, that someone believes McHaney stole money from the district. He said he plans to ask the Jefferson County Sheriff to investigate why McHaney was put on paid administrative leave in mid-April.

Jefferson County’s district attorney, Steven LaRiche, apparently told the KTVZ television station that he planned to ask law enforcement officials why McHaney was put on leave. Assuming that investigation is ongoing, the results may well become public in the weeks ahead. If no investigation is going on, that should change.

While it’s unlikely to do so since both parties have agreed not to “disparage” one another, the board should go tell the public what it believes McHaney has done wrong, and why. A termination agreement signed by both parties noted that the board believes its investigation supports a theft allegation, although McHaney denies that.

But the board so far has not gone into serious detail about how it investigated McHaney. It did hire a Bend accounting firm to look at about 100 transactions on the books, but it did not have those books audited.

If the board of directors believes money or something else of value is missing, it needs to turn the whole matter over to the district attorney’s office. A professional investigation, by men and women who do such things for a living, should be able to sort out exactly what happened. If a crime has occurred, the district attorney should charge whomever he believes is responsible.

By the same token, if an investigation finds no crime, that, too, should be made public, at the very least. McHaney is not a newcomer to the community, and he may wish to stay there. If he’s done nothing wrong, his “no-cause” firing — an oxymoron if ever we heard one — is likely to make that difficult and he deserves to have his name cleared.