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Severance pay denied for Forum’s former CEO
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Buzz Pishkur
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has denied a motion by Forum Health trustees to give severance pay to the health-care system’s former top executive.
In an order issued Wednesday, Judge Kay Woods said Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, former president and chief executive officer of Forum Health, was not eligible for severance pay.
The Forum board filed a motion Nov. 25, 2009, proposing to pay Pishkur $18,216 as a severance benefit.
In a memorandum opinion accompanying her order, Judge Woods said that Forum’s severance program, “although generally applicable to all full-time non-union employees, is not generally applicable to all full-time employees” as required by the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
As a consequence, Judge Woods said, the court cannot by law authorize Forum Health to pay severance benefits to Pishkur.
Forum’s reaction to the court’s ruling was brief.
“We don’t have a comment at this time and don’t anticipate having one,” said Jeff Hedrich, spokesman for Forum’s trustees.
Initially, the U.S. Trustee for Region 9 and the Official Committee of Unsecured (Forum) Creditors objected to the severance pay, but later withdrew their objections.
But, despite the personal contract between Forum and Pishkur providing for severance benefits and the proposed amount being within the cap set by bankruptcy law, Judge Woods said Forum’s ability to make a severance payment to an “insider” is limited.
Severance pay cannot be made to an insider, which Pishkur as CEO was, unless the payment is part of a program that is applicable to all full-time employees. Judge Woods noted in her opinion that no severance benefits were paid to union employees terminated or whose positions were eliminated after Forum filed for bankruptcy.
The financially troubled Forum filed March 16, 2009, for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Pishkur, under pressure from creditors, resigned his position Sept. 21, 2009, about a year after he was hired.
Forum Health operates Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.