A high-ranking Los Angeles Dodgers executive was paid more than $400,000 for running the team’s charitable foundation in 2007, a quarter of the organization’s budget, according to The New York Times.

Tax records show that Howard Sunkin, the team’s senior vice president for public affairs, was paid by the foundation for three years, receiving about $311,000 in 2005 and 2006. He also serves as an adviser to Frank McCourt, the owner of the Dodgers, and a liaison with businesses and government officials, work for which the team said he was compensated separately.

Mr. Sunkin’s compensation was significantly higher than that paid by other Major League Baseball teams’ nonprofit arms. Sandra Miniutti of Charity Navigator said the 2007 figure “is more on the level of [pay for running] a $100-million charity than a $1-million charity.”

A team spokesman said Mr. Sunkin’s 2007 pay reflected his work over three years to expand the charity’s efforts and included a bonus for achieving objectives set by Mr. McCourt. Since 2007 Mr. Sunkin has had an unpaid role with the foundation, which now employs an executive director who earns $85,000 a year.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)