Sunkin's pay at Dodgers' charity hits the news

The New York Times has a story about Howard Sunkin, the Dodgers senior vice president for public affairs, being paid $401,395 in 2007 by the Dodgers Dream Foundation — at a time when the team charity's budget was only $1.6 million. The Dodgers explain it by saying that Sunkin's compensation that year included bonuses for work done previously. From the NYT:

Sunkin’s compensation is unusual among professional baseball clubs. More than half of the official team charities do not pay salaries to the employees who run them. Of those that do, Sunkin’s 2007 pay was far more than what his counterparts at other teams earned.

Sandra Miniutti, a vice president of Charity Navigator, which rates nonprofit organizations, said Sunkin’s pay was “significantly high for a charity of that size.”

Charities with budgets similar to the Dodgers Dream Foundation’s typically pay chief executives about $90,000 a year, she said. A $400,000 salary “is more on the level of a $100 million charity than a $1 million charity,” Miniutti said.

Sunkin — who is the team's liaison to City Hall and other governmental levels and community groups — has not been paid through the charity since 2007, the story says. The full-time director until recently, Stephanie Wilka, was paid $85,000 a year.