King County Public Hospital District No. 4’s Board of Commissioners approved a severance agreement and contract buyout for Superintendent of the District and Snoqualmie Valley Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rodger McCollum at the public board meeting on March 3.

The severance agreement offered to McCollum, who has been the superintendent since 2004, includes a full buyout of his contract, which is set to expire on Dec. 6.

The board then approved a resolution to make current Chief Operating Officer (COO) Tom Parker the interim CEO of the hospital.

As their last action of the meeting, the board also approved a letter to McCollum, listing several issues with non-compliance to his contract that would have to be corrected if he declined to accept the severance agreement.

The board of commissioners voted to terminate McCollum’s contract without cause through an amended employee agreement that McCollum signed in 2013.

The amendment stated that if he is terminated when “neither cause nor permanent disability exists, however, and provided that executive releases district and its agents from any and all claims in a signed, written release satisfactory in form and substance to district,” the hospital district would agree to pay a severance payment for the remainder of his contract.

Before voting on the severance agreement, commissioner David Speikers introduced an amendment to the resolution to change the transition period of CEOs from one week to two weeks. McCollum will be working with Parker until March 18.

On the resolution itself, Speikers said the decision to terminate McCollum’s contract was difficult, but necessary for the financial health of the hospital.

“The board will be making a decision based on a lot of thought, a lot of conviction and I have a lot of emotion over it myself. If I didn’t have such a strong interest in the health care of this community and a commitment to work as hard as I can to make this hospital district viable, this may not be happening,” Speikers said.

The board, he said, “really got together on this whole issue. I think we have, maybe for the first time… a collective wisdom that is on the same plane and whatever the personal reasons are that each of us have, I think that we have been able to put them aside and I would like the board to consider this agreement today to be presented to Mr. McCollum’s attorney and start fresh to go forward and not backward.”

The resolution to approve the severance agreement passed the board vote 4-1, with commissioner Gene Pollard opposed. Pollard said he found the agreement “abominable” and stated it was “a disgrace of public money.”

He felt the money to buy out McCollum’s contract should be used for medical purposes, rather than legal expenses.

“Historians will look at this as a rape of the community,” Pollard said.

The letter citing non-compliance with McCollum’s contract specified that he has 30 days to correct the six items.

Speikers read the letter aloud at the meeting:

“You have not provided an acceptable plan for transitioning to non-cost based reimbursement;

“You have missed three of last four finance committee meetings without excused absence;

“You were directed to discontinue TPC membership at November budget meeting and have refused;

“You have refused to balance budget for past three months;

“An audit of credit card expenditures shows that you have used the district’s credit card for personal expenses; and

“You have made untruthful comments to local newspapers concerning whether the Board has directed you to reduce the district’s budget one week ago.”

According to Speikers, if McCollum accepts the severance agreement, the letter will become null and void.

McCollum has three weeks to accept the agreement. He has not shared his plans.

“I can’t at this point until we make some sort of a decision, agreeing or not agreeing to the severance,” he said.