Blue Earth City Administrator Kathy Bailey got a bigger increase in her salary for next year than she expected – or asked for.

When Bailey was hired a year ago, her salary was set at the mid-range of a series of salary steps for a Blue Earth city administrator. Although it should have been at the Step 4 amount of $5,949.97 per month, Bailey’s actual salary was set at $5,761.27.

For 2010, her salary should be increased to Step 5, or $6,299.10 per month. But the administrator proposed a lessor amount in order to follow the progression of being under the actual steps.

Bailey suggested a figure of $6,124.53.

However, at last Tuesday’s regular city council meeting, Councilman Dick Maher argued for getting the salary back on track.

“Although it is nice to save a few dollars, we need to get back to the step amounts in her contract,” Maher says. The other councilmen agreed and passed a motion to bypass Bailey’s suggested amount and go with the regular Step 5 figure.

Mayor Rob Hammond explained that the intention when Bailey was hired was to go with a figure in between the high and low salary ranges of $52,705 and $77,693 per year.

“I really don’t know where the figure for her actual salary amount came from,” Hammond says. The salary range was proposed by a consultant in April 2007, he adds.