Bee Exclusive: Warrants allege library scheme

Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday against two former Sacramento Public Library officials and the wife of one of them on grand theft and bribery charges stemming from a lengthy corruption probe, The Bee has learned.

The case involves "tens of thousands" of dollars in alleged kickbacks and $650,000 in taxpayer funds paid out in an overbilling scheme, court and investigative documents state.

Sacramento district attorney's officials, who led the investigation, declined to comment on the case Tuesday but are expected to make an announcement today.

Sources said the arrest warrants name three people facing charges of grand theft and bribery: Dennis Nilsson, 61, of Folsom, and Sacramento couple James Mayle, 63, and Janie Rankins-Mayle, 59.

Nilsson and Mayle – both former library employees – also face charges of criminal conflict of interest by a public official, sources said.

The Mayle couple and Nilsson could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Library director Anne Marie Gold confirmed Tuesday evening that she had been briefed on the charges.

"I'm very appreciative and grateful of the excellent work the district attorney and her staff have done in following up on this investigation," Gold said. "I'm pleased to see this action taken, very pleased."

The case came to light in June, after The Bee revealed that a firm owned by the Mayles had routinely overbilled the library for maintenance work at library branches.

The library commissioned an investigation following that report and found questionable arrangements between Nilsson, the library maintenance supervisor, and the Mayles.

Over several years, the company billed the library $1.3 million, with about $650,000 of that charged improperly, according to the library investigation, which was released in September.

Nilsson had urged Janie Rankins-Mayle in early 2004 to start a handyman firm to do work for the library, the investigation determined.

Rankins-Mayle launched the company – eventually known as Hagginwood Services Inc. – in the spring of 2004. Over several years, she wrote company checks "amounting to tens of thousands of dollars" to Nilsson, search warrant documents state.

Nilsson was the public library official charged with approving the work orders that Rankins-Mayle's company completed, records show.

James Mayle, who is married to Rankins-Mayle and was security director for the library, was vice president of Hagginwood.

Even though his responsibility was security, Mayle submitted work orders that he knew his company would complete, according to the library's investigative report.

Concerns about the arrangement were first brought to library officials' attention in 2005, when library finance clerk Diane Boerman complained that Nilsson had given Hagginwood a no-bid contract. She also raised concerns that the company had no contractor's license.

In response, library officials decided to go out to bid for the contract and selected the Mayle firm in October 2006, despite the fact that it had no contractor's license.

Hundreds of pages of documents reviewed by The Bee showed that subcontractors performed maintenance at library branches, then turned their bills over to Hagginwood.

That firm then doubled and tripled those charges and submitted bills to the library on Hagginwood letterhead.

The library's investigative report found that Rankins-Mayle shredded most of the subcontractors' invoices.

The report described a job changing ceiling tiles that a subcontractor completed for $3,240. Hagginwood destroyed that invoice and sent a bill to the library for $10,480, the report said.

"The only identifiable effect resulting from the insertion of (Hagginwood) into the maintenance repair system at the library as a general contractor was to … create a stream of revenue for Rankins-Mayle, and by extension, her husband," the report says.

After the investigative report was released, library attorney Diane Balter sued the Mayles, seeking $1.3 million. The Mayle couple missed the deadline to respond to the lawsuit, court records show.

Library officials placed Nilsson on administrative leave in June. Soon afterward, he told The Bee that he would not be "the fall guy." He resigned in September amid the library's investigation.

James Mayle had been off work since December 2005 based on a worker's compensation claim that he fell off his chair and sustained pain in his back and right buttock, records show. Gold said he was terminated in November.

The Sacramento Public Library is a joint powers authority funded by contributions from the state, city and counties of Sacramento. More than a dozen elected officials serve as board of directors to the library system.

"I am pleased to see the arrest warrants issued in this case," said county Supervisor Roger Dickinson, a member of the library board. "It is appropriate that those involved be brought to justice regarding their activities in defrauding the public."

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