In Hoerner v. Public School Employees' Retirement Board, 546 Pa. 215, 684 A.2d 112 (1996), our Supreme Court determined that increases in a party's salary during his last year of employment pursuant to negotiated termination agreements constituted "severance payments" which were excludable from "compensation" for purposes of computing the party's "final average salary" under the Retirement Code. Thus, it was the Board, not the language of the negotiated termination agreement, which had the power to determine what benefits were due under the Retirement Code.