The whistle-blower who unearthed what prosecutors describe as a kickback scheme at the Sacramento library authority testified Wednesday that the system's former director "reacted badly" when first told about the alleged improprieties.

Diana Boerman, a senior accounts payable technician for the library, said she first shared her suspicions with former library director Anne Marie Gold in October 2005 on the suggestion of a union representative.

"Ms. Gold reacted badly," Boerman said under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina. "She threw her hands up in my face and said she didn't want to hear anything about it."

Boerman said the director eventually regained her composure, apologized and "thanked me for coming," but still "dismissed me from her office."

Ignored by higher-ups and the library's governing board, Boerman told her story to The Sacramento Bee, prompting an investigation that produced an April 2008 criminal complaint against the library's former facilities director, Dennis Nilsson, 65; its ex-security chief, James Mayle, 66; and Mayle's wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, 62.

Rankins-Mayle owned a handyman repair firm that did $1.3 million in business with the library in the purported scheme that prosecutors say cost city and county taxpayers an estimated $150,000.

Nilsson, 65, is accused in an 18-count complaint with grand theft and accepting bribes. The Mayles are charged with grand theft and offering a bribe. Mayle and Nilsson also are charged under the state Government Code with self-dealing.

The defendants have contended that the payments directed to Rankins-Mayle's two companies were not out of line with what other private vendors were receiving, and in some cases were less than the cost of similar work performed by city and county employees.

Boerman testified in Sacramento Superior Court on Wednesday with a Stationary Engineers Local 39 union pin on her lapel. She has since filed a retaliation and civil rights lawsuit against the library authority. She said in the suit that as a result of her coming forward, her bosses reduced her job to an entry level assignment, froze her pay and launched a campaign of harassment against her.

Library spokeswoman Brenda Haggard declined to comment on the suit. In court papers, privately retained attorneys from Solana Beach who are representing the library said Boerman should be barred from recovery "by virtue of her unlawful, immoral, careless, negligent and other conduct." They also cited as a defense "her failure to perform her job satisfactorily."

A 17-year employee of the library, Boerman testified she was working as an account clerk in April 2004 when Nilsson hand-delivered to her invoices for repair work. She said the invoices lacked information such as the cost of materials, the names of the subcontractors, the hourly rates and how many hours went into the projects.

A $400 payout on a toilet repair prompted her to bounce one bill back at Nilsson. In September 2005, Boerman said she found out the firm that did the work on the toilet – Rankins-Mayle's All City Maintenance – had billed the library for $500,000 in projects that year. She said she later discovered All City lacked a contractor's license and was owned by the Mayles.

Boerman said former library finance director Brian Karow told her "as long as the bills had Mr. Nilsson's name on them, I could pay them." Still concerned that something was wrong, Boerman went to Gold, who was out of the country Wednesday and unavailable to comment, the library spokeswoman said.

Asked by Blazina why she came forward with the information, Boerman said that as a taxpayer, "I felt the money going out the door was more than it should have been."

Nilsson's attorney, Daniel M. Karalash, suggested in his questioning of Boerman that her union activism – she is a shop steward in Local 39 – motivated her decision to take on upper management. Karalash asked Boerman if it was her goal to get the city and county to hire more employees within the governmental agencies rather than have them subcontract the maintenance work out to private firms.

Karalash also suggested that the $400 toilet fix was not so extravagant. Boerman testified she paid $350 for a toilet repair at home, but that it was a 3 1/2-hour emergency job on a Sunday night.

The attorney also came to the defense of the former library director, suggesting Gold might have blown up at Boerman over the maintenance work because it came up 15 to 20 minutes into a meeting in which the account clerk had voiced other grievances.

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Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141. Follow him on Twitter @andyfurillo.

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