OFFICE OF THE CONTROLLER
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Ben Rosenfield
Controller
Todd Rydstrom
Deputy Controller

SENT VIA E-MAIL
September 11, 2020
Ms. Naomi M. Kelly
City Administrator
Office of the City Administrator
City Hall, Room 362
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dear Ms. Kelly:
In accordance with the requirements of the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco, including
Appendix F, and city codes, the Office of the Controller’s City Services Auditor (CSA) will assess the
inventory of drug evidence held by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). The assessment,
which is a nonaudit service, will determine whether all the drug evidence (including prescription and
illicit drugs) that should be present is present, properly sealed in bags, securely stored, and accounted
for in the log. Depending on the results of our fieldwork, we may expand the assessment’s scope to
evaluate the OCME’s policies and procedures for handling drug and other evidence, including how it
is received, identified (analyzed and tagged), bagged, logged, secured, and inventoried.
We are conducting the assessment at your request. As Ken Bukowski told me on September 9th, this is
an urgent, high-priority project, so the assessment team will start planning the work next week. Our
team will conduct its fieldwork, in one day if possible, at OCME’s facility after we receive the
information requested below. We expect to conduct the fieldwork during the week of September 21st
or 28th. Our goal, subject to adjustment after we fully scope and plan the assessment, is to provide a
draft memorandum of our results to you by mid-October 2020.
To conduct the assessment, CSA must collect sufficient information to develop an appropriate plan,
including the methodology the team will use to test the evidence. To that end, we will work with
Mr. Bukowski and OCME to obtain the needed information. We ask that they provide us the following
information as soon as possible:
•
•
•
•
•

OCME’s organizational chart.
OCME’s written policies and procedures on handling evidence, including drugs.
OCME’s forensics log covering January 1, 2016, to the present in electronic form (PDF).
A properly completed label or tag attached to a bag of drug evidence (PDF).
A diagram or written description of where OCME’s evidence is stored, including how it is
organized.
CITY HALL • 1 DR. CARLTON B. GOODLETT PLACE • ROOM 316 • SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-4694
PHONE 415-554-7500 • FAX 415-554-7466

 2   OCME Drug Evidence Inventory Assessment Notification Letter
September 11, 2020

The assessment team will be led by Audit Manager Todd Ojo, to whom the information above
should be sent (at todd.ojo@sfgov.org). We will also be scheduling an Entrance Meeting next week
to discuss the scope of this assessment and next steps. During our fieldwork, OCME should be
prepared to give the assessment team access to the evidence room(s) and related original records.
Mr. Bukowski has assured us that our team’s site visit to the facility will be conducted under the City’s
COVID-19 prevention protocols. During on-site fieldwork, our team will wear masks and practice social
distancing, and we understand that OCME staff will do the same. We also understand that the room(s)
in which the drug evidence is stored will be cleaned and disinfected before our team arrives.
Thank you for your cooperation. CSA looks forward to working with you and your staff.
Respectfully,

Mark de la Rosa
Acting Director of Audits

cc:

City Administrator/OCME
Ken Bukowski
Jennifer Johnston
Dr. Luke Rodda
Controller
Ben Rosenfield
Todd Rydstrom
Kate Chalk
Todd Ojo
Dave Jensen
Eryl Karr
Alice Duncan-Graves
Matthew Thomas