Kansas City, Mo ? The federal government has given a local agency 30 days to justify the local Head Start executive director’s pay or return it to the federal government.

The federal government is questioning $814,142 in salary and bonuses paid during three years to Dwayne Crompton, executive director of KCMC Child Development Corp.

Failure to repay the money or justify why it does not violate federal regulations could cost KCMC its Head Start contract to educate low-income preschoolers, according to a letter sent to KCMC and obtained by The Kansas City Star. Federal officials said they didn’t know of any Head Start director in the country making more than Crompton, who has received annual compensation of more than $300,000, along with a leased luxury car and other perks.

Program already in debt

The letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services threatening to withhold the money arrived Thursday, at a time when KCMC is saddled with a major overdue debt to the Kansas City School District.

Attorneys for the district have been trying since March 2002 to collect $1.5 million from KCMC for operating some of its Head Start programs, but so far only $382,000 has been paid. KCMC said it didn’t have the money to pay the district because of a fraud scheme perpetrated by its former controller.

KCMC spokesman Mack Alexander said he doubted the agency would have to repay all of Crompton’s salary in question or face having the government withhold future Head Start payments.

“We find this incredible,” he said. “This is potentially everything for the three years.”

‘Based upon value’

Alexander told The Star on Friday that Crompton would not comment on the letter from Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start. Messages left by The Associated Press at KCMC’s administrative office Saturday, when the agency was closed, were not returned.

On Oct. 1, The Star submitted written questions to KCMC board Chairman Kenneth Spaulding about Crompton’s salary and other aspects of KCMC’s operation, but Alexander said the board could not yet respond.

In a June interview with The Star, Crompton said his salary was a reward for his work to keep the agency operating after the financial problems caused by the former controller.

“I guess it’s based upon value,” Crompton said. “I’ve been here 26 years.”

By the numbers

Health and Human Services questioned Crompton’s compensation package for the fiscal years ending June 30 in 2000, 2001 and 2002, which included performance bonuses, auto and group life insurance, a signing bonus, vacation cash-out and retirement income.

According to tax forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Crompton’s largest compensation package in that period was $343,064 in fiscal 2001. His fiscal 2003 compensation totaled $307,503, and his fiscal 2000 salary package was $157,800.

But Windy Hill, associate commissioner of Head Start, said deferred payments and other benefits boosted the 2000 total to $237,153.

KCMC receives the bulk of its $26.6 million in annual revenue in the form of grants from Health and Human Services.

Department officials said auditors had been unable to account for all of Crompton’s salary and benefits from 1999 through 2002, and the department’s findings will be forwarded to the IRS, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and other agencies.

Crompton’s defenders say he is worth every penny because of his effect on Kansas City.

“To the average person who sees that, they will say that money could have gone to retire the debt (to the Kansas City district),” former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver, a friend of Crompton’s, said this summer. “The dilemma we have here is what do we do with an individual who essentially builds a fledgling agency into an educational juggernaut. He is clearly worth the money, and without the money Kansas City would be without Dwayne.”