Creditors object to Forum’s plan

By William K. Alcorn

A hearing on hiring an interim CEO is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today.

YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health’s unsecured creditors object to the health-care system’s plan to hire an interim CEO for $75,000 a month plus expenses and a second consulting firm to locate the candidate.

In a motion filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors said Forum previously used Huron Consulting Services to find a chief restructuring officer, and the creditors see no reason to hire another firm, FTI Consulting, to provide an interim CEO.

A hearing in bankruptcy court before Judge Kay Woods on the hiring of Charles W. Neumann as interim CEO is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today.

Neumann, who has 30 years of health-care business and management experience, including turnaround management, would replace Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, who resigned effective Oct. 9.

In its motion, the creditors committee said it is concerned with the costs of “multiple consultants and other professionals engaged by the debtors [Forum].”

The committee said Huron recently asked the court to approve compensation totaling $783,662 plus expenses of $44,927 for the period of June 1 through Aug. 31, 2009.

The creditors said they are “troubled” by the retention of a second management consulting firm, especially considering that Forum also has retained an investment banking firm that charges $150,000 a month.

alcorn@vindy.com