Library clerk blows the whistle -- three jailed, settlement paid

 Don’t tick off the library clerk. Or at least not Diane Boerman. She was the California woman who told her bosses at the Sacramento Public Library Authority that something seemed fishy about the agency’s billings for maintenance projects. But her boss ignored her and, worse, she claimed that she was later passed up for promotions and raises and that her superiors "generally made her life miserable,” according to her subsequent lawsuit. It turned out that there had been a kickback scheme at the library system and that 1,400 padded bills cost the library $800,000, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. Two library officials and a security chief were criminally charged and convicted earlier this year. As for Boerman, the lawsuit over her treatment was recently settled for $300,000 plus $43,000 more in severance pay. Learn more about whistleblower actions.