Documents: Health network played role in purchase, repair of ex-CEO’s mansion
Kettering Health has opened internal probe into fiscal allegations.
Weeks before now-retired Kettering Health CEO Fred Manchur bought a $1 million historic Kettering home, Kettering Medical Center agreed to buy the house pending board approval, according to a purchase agreement signed by then-Chief Financial Officer Russ Wetherell.
The April 1, 2008, agreement to buy the house behind the hospital campus for $1 million was not signed by seller Catherine Kiley and it is not known if the board of directors discussed or voted on the purchase because a Kettering Health spokeswoman in May said she could provide no information on the matter.
The purchase agreement and Kettering Medical Center Network repair estimates for the home are included in documents Kiley filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court as part of her 2009 civil lawsuit against Manchur and his wife, Mary Kaye.
Manchur w a s president of Kettering Medical Center — now called Kettering Health Main Campus — when he and his wife purchased the house at 3500 Stonebridge Road from Kiley for $1 million on May 16, 2008, according to a property transfer deed filed with the Montgomery County Auditor and a Midwest Title Company settlement statement included in the lawsuit. Kiley also gave the Manchurs $43,361 for repairs, according to a repair agreement with them.
“The dealings were just with Fred. They were to sell her home to Fred for his personal residence, and it was a surprise to her when his lawyers drew up the contract with Kettering Health Network as the purchaser,” Kiley’s attorney, John A. Smalley, said in a May interview with the Dayton Daily News, referring to the network by one of its previous names.
The Dayton Daily News is investigating the purchase and renovation of the Manchurs’ Kettering home after Kettering Health announced it is conducting an internal investigation into “allegations of inappropriate fiscal and operational management at Kettering Health.”
Complaints filed with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office include allegations that the health network paid for renovations to the house.
Manchur, who retired at the end of last year, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. The Dayton office of Taft, the law firm representing him in the Kiley lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
The health system is operated by the non-profit Kettering Adventist Healthcare, which currently does business as Kettering Health and was previously called Kettering Medical Center Network and Kettering Health Network. The non-profit is sponsored by the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
In October 2008, several months after the Manchurs bought the Stonebridge house, Kettering Adventist Healthcare and then-network executive Walter Sackett and his wife purchased the Manchurs’ home in Washington Twp. for $600,000, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office.
Documents filed in Kiley’s lawsuit over the Stonebridge house sale also include Kettering Medical Center Network repair estimates dated April 22, 2008 and May 14, 2008 for $43,361 in repairs to the home, the money that was at issue in Kiley’s lawsuit.
Fred Manchur’s deposition in the case includes a May 25, 2008 proposal, submitted after he bought the house, by a Xenia contractor to fix the house’s chimneys and gables for $27,500 and listing the recipients of the proposal as Kettering Medical Center Network and an employee in the network’s facilities department.
The Manchurs, who still own the home, obtained city of Kettering structural permits in 2015 and 2016 for renovations, city documents show. Among the architectural drawings submitted to the city were for garage and kitchen additions and a two-lane bowling alley, but city records indicate the bowling alley and garage additions were not completed. Records do not show the final total cost of renovations.
Asked about the network’s role in the purchase of the Manchurs’ homes in Kettering and Washington Twp. or anything related to home improvements to the Stonebridge house, Kettering Health spokeswoman Christine Reedy said via email in late May that “we have no information to provide.”
The allegation involving the Manchurs’ house is part of a broader list of complaints about network spending on travel and other costs that an anonymous person sent to Yost in February 2023.
A similar list of concerns was included in an anonymous letter signed “Concerned SDA Church Members and Friends of Kettering Health” and addressed to health network associates, Seventh-day Adventist Church officials and government officials in 2021.
Yost also received a complaint in August from former Kettering Health employee Lori Van Nostrand regarding Manchur’s expense reports, entertainment costs and decisions on buying property, among other issues.
The complaints are public record but the attorney general’s response is not, unless an investigation results in some civil action or criminal prosecution, said Kelly May, spokeswoman for Yost, whose office oversees non-profits.
“Charitable investigations are confidential by law,” May said. “So we couldn’t confirm or deny the potential or existence of an investigation.”
Kettering Health announced in March that it had opened an internal investigation and that the investigation found the allegations about spending did not involve funds received through donations to the four Kettering Health foundations.
“We are — and have been — fully aware of allegations of inappropriate fiscal and operational management at Kettering Health. Our Board and leadership team take these allegations seriously and are committed to integrity, improvement, and upholding the trust of our staff, providers, and community,” the network said in a written statement March 27.
One outside firm was hired to do the internal investigation and a second to recommend updated processes and policies. Reedy said Kettering Health had no additional comment on the status of the investigation beyond the March statement.
“While this work is ongoing, we are taking steps to address wrongdoing and shortcomings we identify,”
the March statement said. “These steps include making necessary personnel changes — inclusive of employees and members of the Board — to ensure both individual accountability and strict compliance with updated and comprehensive governance practices. Consistent with organizational policy, no specific personnel issues will be discussed.”
Manchur’s local homes
When Manchur moved to Montgomery County from California in 2001 to become president of Kettering Medical Center, he and his wife bought a home on Alda Court in Washington Twp., for $630,000, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office.
In October 2008 the Manchurs sold that Washington Twp., house for $600,000 to Kettering Adventist Healthcare and the Sacketts, with the non-profit and the Sacketts each buying a 50% share, according to a general warranty deed on file at the Montgomery County Recorder’s office. The non-profit sold the Sacketts its share of the house for $230,000 in 2013, according to county auditor records.
Sackett, who joined the network in 2007 and served as president of two of the system’s hospitals, was named Kettering Health president in September 2021. He left the network in October 2022 and could not be reached for comment.
The Manchurs’ 8,149-square foot Stonebridge house was built in 1928 and owned by Standard Register before Kiley and her then-husband bought it in 2002, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office. The home is currently valued at $984,830, according to the auditor.
Kiley said Fred Manchur contacted her about buying the house in February 2008. He wanted $43,361 to cover the cost of some repairs, and was to provide documentation of the work and return any portion of the
money not used for those repairs, according to court documents.
In July 2009 Kiley sued the Manchurs, saying they had failed to live up to the repair agreement. The Manchurs filed a counterclaim saying they were still awaiting documentation of the repairs and had found additional problems with the house.
In a February 2010 deposition Kiley said the Kettering Medical Center Network repair estimate dated April 22, 2008 was presented to her as the inspection results and estimated cost of problems needing fixed.
Fred Manchur was asked during his September 2010 deposition who prepared the repair estimates marked “Kettering Medical Center Network.” He said he would have to research that but noted that if it had been done by someone at the Kettering Medical Center Network it would have been done at his instruction, according to the transcript of Manchur’s
deposition.
The resolution of that question is not included in the lawsuit as the Manchurs and Kiley settled the lawsuit after mediation, and it was dismissed in July 2011.
The Manchurs obtained financing through the Kettering Medical Center Network Credit Union for $306,000 when they bought the home on May 16, 2008 and were released from that mortgage in 2012, according to documents filed at the Montgomery County Recorder’s office.
They also had mortgages backed by the Stonebridge house with the Kettering Health Network Credit Union for $216,000 in 2012 and $480,000 in 2015, both of which were later released, and an “open end” mortgage for $409,500 in 2020, according to documents at the recorder’s office.
Manchur’s pay
Manchur became the network president in January 2009 and was named CEO in December 2010 following the retirement of the previous CEO, Frank Perez. Last year Manchur took a leave of absence before retiring effective Dec. 31, according to a Nov. 2 Kettering Health news release.
As CEO Manchur’s total annual compensation fluctuated widely, reaching more than $5 million in 2017, according to this newspaper’s analysis of Kettering Adventist Healthcare’s IRS tax returns from 2015 to 2021, the most recent year available.
The form does not specify details about the $3.4 million in “other reportable compensation” that helped push his total that high in 2017.
Manchur’s 2021 base pay was $1.68 million in 2021. That year he also received a $407,160 bonus and incentive compensation, other reportable compensation of $82,317 and retirement, deferred compensation, and nontaxable benefits totaling $42,994, according to the non-profit’s tax returns.
That put his total compensation at $2.2 million for 2021.
In other years Manchur was paid as follows:
2020: base compensation $1.4 million; total compensation $1.49 million.
2019: base compensation $1.5 million; total compensation $2.5 million.
2018: base compensation $1.4 million; total compensation $2.96 million.
2017: base compensation $1.38 million; total compensation $5.06 million.
2016: base compensation $1.3 million; total compensation $2.99 million.
2015: base $1.26 million; total compensation $3.86 million.
In April, Kettering Health announced that Michael Gentry, former chief operating officer at Sentara Healthcare headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, would take over as network CEO on July 3.
Gentry replaces Interim CEO Michael Mewhirter.