Sacramento Public Library Whistleblower Settles Suit for $343,000

In April 2012, Diane Boerman a senior accounts clerk at the Sacramento Public Library reached a $343,000 confidential settlement in her retaliation lawsuit against the library.  Boerman blew the whistle on a kickback scheme that ultimately sent three people to prison. The settlement was approved in secret by the library’s board of directors in a March 22, 2012 executive session, but wasn’t finalized until April.

Boerman presented suspicious billing activity that she discovered to the library’s previous administration.  She claimed that she was ignored by former library director Anne Marie Gold.  Besides not acting on her concerns Boerman also claims that her bosses denied her promotions, pay raises, and “generally made her life miserable.”

Boerman first brought her concerns to her supervisors in April 2004.  After she was rebuffed by her bosses, she published a series of articles that prompted investigations by the grand jury and the District Attorney’s Office.

Former library director, Gold retired in 2008 amid the Sacramento County Grand Jury investigation into mismanagement of the agency.

The District Attorney’s investigation uncovered an estimated 1,400 padded invoices that cost the library $800,000.  It led to criminal charges against two library officials, facilities director Dennis Nilsson, 65, and security chief James E. Mayle, 67, as well as Mayle’s wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, 63, who had set up a billing company to handle the maintenance accounts.  All three were convicted earlier this year and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five years and four months to 14 years.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen H. Sumner later ordered the defendants to pay $800,000 in restitution.  Another hearing is scheduled for May 11, 2012 on the district attorney’s request to have a receiver appointed to try to recover the money.

For more information, please see:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/01/4454886/library-whistleblower-settles.html#storylink=cpy