ROL: The man who runs nonprofit organizations for the disabled in Kiryas Joel and the Monsey area of Rockland County made $452,000 in total compensation in 2004 – almost triple the pay of one industry peer with a much larger operation to run.The executive director of Provider-Hamaspik of Orange County Inc. and Provider-Hamaspik of Rockland County Inc., collected $283,000 that year in separate salaries for the two organizations, which operate independently.

Hamaspik runs group homes and provides other services for disabled children and adults in three Orthodox Jewish communities. It has no connection to the Kiryas Joel public school for students with mental and physical disabilities.

Hamaspik has separate nonprofits in Kiryas Joel, Monsey and Brooklyn. The Kiryas Joel chapter formed in 1988 and has its own board of directors. While unusually high, there is no indication Wertheimer’s pay violates any government rules.

Almost all of the combined $13 million that the Rockland and Orange County Hamaspiks collected in 2004 came from Medicaid and Medicare.

But those taxpayer-funded programs don’t limit the compensation of executives whose organizations they support.