We don’t know many of the details behind the firing of Shenango Township Police Chief David Tresky.

As a personnel matter, such subjects rarely receive extensive publicity. So observers are left to speculate, based on what little can be confirmed.

And the available evidence shows that — at the very least — the Shenango Township supervisors have done a poor job dealing with this issue.

We note that even though Tresky was dismissed on Nov. 14, the supervisors did not bother to inform the public of the fact. The police chief of a community is an important position. We think the public needs to be told when the chief has been dismissed — even if the supervisors can’t go into detail about the reasons behind the firing.

Instead, word about Tresky’s firing began to drip out. The New Castle News learned something was up early last week. But repeated calls to the supervisor for information were not returned.

That’s a horrible way to handle communications with the public.

According to Tresky — who did talk to The News — the firing came as a surprise. He provided a two-page letter that outlined the reasons for his termination. But these were merely references to policies the supervisors claimed Tresky had violated. There were no specific examples or allegations in the letter.

Most of the complaints about Tresky’s work dealt with procedural matters within the department, such as the scheduling of hours and assigning of overtime. There was also an extremely vague category that said simply, “Discriminatory and racial comments.”

Perhaps Tresky was not a good fit with the department. Perhaps he wasn’t handling the job the way the supervisors preferred. But Tresky’s comments indicate he had no meaningful discussions with the supervisors about any concerns they had. The meeting to fire him was it.

Again, we don’t know if that’s true. However, at last Thursday’s supervisors meeting, township solicitor Gabriel Cilli defended the way Tresky’s firing had been handled, in part by saying no warnings were required, because Tresky was still on probation.

But wouldn’t it make sense to attempt to talk these things out? The Shenango supervisors went through the effort of advertising for a chief and interviewing candidates before hiring Tresky. Now, they will have to do it again.

Or maybe not. At last week’s meeting, where Tresky was formally dismissed, Supervisor Larry Herman said township officials may discuss the possibility of bringing him back — in response to a visitor who advised them to do so.

Are the supervisors having second thoughts about Tresky? Did they deal effectively with any issues that arose while he was chief?

We don’t know. But so far, the supervisors haven’t persuaded us this matter has been handled responsibly.