Beleaguered Coroner Kornblum to Quit : County agencies: Spokesman says resignation has nothing to do with audit or district attorney’s investigation of troubled office.

The head of Los Angeles County’s troubled coroner’s office--recently found deficient in more than 150 ways by administrative auditors--announced Thursday that he intends to resign, effective July 1.

Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Ronald N. Kornblum notified Board of Supervisors Chairman Pete Schabarum by letter that it is in both his and the county’s “best interest” that he resign.

In deciding to relinquish his $120,925-a-year post, Kornblum defended his tenure in office after taking over as coroner eight years ago, when Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, self-styled “coroner to the stars,” was accused of poor management and lost his job.

“I want it to be known that I accepted the challenge and executed the duties, as responsibly as possible, in a climate of continual turmoil and upheaval,” Kornblum wrote.

Meeting with his division chiefs Thursday, Kornblum, 56, announced his decision to leave and said he was going on vacation “starting now.”

Coroner’s spokesman Bob Dambacher said Kornblum is not expected to return.

Dambacher denied that Kornblum’s departure had anything to do with the county audit. Also, he said the resignation had nothing to do with any district attorney’s office investigation of possible wrongdoing.

Until a successor is named, the administrative duties will be handled by Chief Deputy Ilona Lewis, Dambacher said.

Reached at his Pasadena home Thursday, Kornblum said he was “tired” and has “better things to go into”--including lecturing, teaching forensic pathology and editing a textbook on the subject.

On running the coroner’s office, he said, “It’s very difficult.” The department, he said, has a tremendous workload and not enough people to handle it.

And, he added:

“I don’t need the politics.”

As Kornblum leaves, the coroner’s office is subject to two investigations by the district attorney’s office, but district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said Kornblum is not the target of either of them.

One inquiry involves allegations that coroner’s employees helped mortuaries perpetuate a double-billing fraud involving indigent veterans, Gibbons said. In the other investigation, Kornblum asked the district attorney’s office to “take another look” at something that involved the department’s handling of a stillborn infant. Gibbons declined to elaborate.

In reaction to the coroner’s decision to leave, Schabarum said Kornblum had “really turned that operation (coroner’s office) around” since taking over from Noguchi.

Supervisor Deane Dana said Kornblum’s announcement came as a “shock.”

“We’re very sorry to lose him because Dr. Kornblum is a nationally acclaimed pathologist. . . . He has done a good job, as I would see it, under very difficult circumstances.”

“The pressure got to him,” Supervisor Kenneth Hahn said, citing the recent audit, which he said did not find any mismanagement on Kornblum’s part but “just put more pressure on him.”

The 319-page review, released earlier this month after a year of study, offered 155 recommendations on how to improve the department’s efficiency and working conditions. The auditors concluded that the growing number of homicides in the county had overwhelmed the coroner’s office, which has been accused of moving too slowly on autopsies.

The audit also found:

* Evidence that improper storage of bodies was contributing to unsanitary conditions at the coroner’s office, forcing employees in one case to wear “military-style gas masks” because of the odor.

* Bodies suitable for embalming are often not embalmed for weeks, creating unsanitary conditions.

* Routine major cleaning of crypts was not performed regularly.

* Staff needs better training in identification of bodies.

Kornblum said he accepted all but 15 of the recommendations.

“When you compare it (the office) to what it was like when I took over, I think it is pretty good, but not nearly as good as I would like it,” Kornblum said.

Kornblum said he has not had formal training in administration and admitted that he did not enjoy day-to-day management of the coroner’s office, one of the nation’s busiest in handling 18,019 investigations and 5,804 autopsies last year.

“I’m a scientific person,” Kornblum told The Times last year.

When Kornblum took over, he found a department beset with controversy in the wake of the demotion of Noguchi, who was accused or poor management, loose evidence controls and allegations that his private consulting interfered with his job performance.

After several court battles, Noguchi failed to get his job back and is now a pathologist at County-USC Medical Center.

Noguchi hired Kornblum in 1980 as the coroner’s chief of forensic medicine. Kornblum, a Chicago native, had been the Ventura County coroner, where officials described him as an excellent pathologist.

Kornblum said one of his goals when he became coroner was to instill more “professionalism” in the staff and to carry out his duties in a low-key manner in dramatic contrast to his predecessor’s razzle-dazzle style.

One of Kornblum’s actions was to hire Karl Harris, 57, as his chief of investigations to look into charges of poor management and criminal activity within the coroner’s office.

Harris formed a special internal investigative unit and went to work. Harris uncovered evidence that some mortuaries, with the help of coroner’s employees, were billing the county and the Veterans Administration for the cremation and mortuary expenses for poor veterans.

The investigation crew also unearthed evidence that drivers for a defunct trucking firm were using phony county identification cards when they picked up bodies at homes and hospitals. Officials of the firm said they had the cards printed to cut the red tape involved in taking possession of bodies.

Kornblum and Harris had a falling out and Harris left at the end of 1988.

“Kornblum had an opportunity to clean house and make it a squeaky-clean department,” said Harris, who believes he was forced out for doing his job too well. “He just dropped the ball because he fears publicity. He just covered it up.”

Kornblum, however, accused Harris of running amok.

Times staff writer Ronald L. Soble contributed to this story.