Search for Successor to Kornblum Begins
Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday authorized a nationwide search to find a successor for beleaguered Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Ronald N. Kornblum, who announced he will step down from the job on July 1.
“That’s going to be a real tough one,” said Supervisor Kenneth Hahn of the recruitment effort.
He noted that the coroner’s staff of 15 doctors performed 5,804 autopsies and its 160-member staff handled 18,019 investigations last year.
A recent management audit called for 155 changes in the coroner’s office after finding that staff shortages, coupled with a growing homicide rate, were leading to a breakdown in controls and sanitary conditions.
Kornblum, 56, took over the coroner’s office in 1982 when Thomas Noguchi, the so-called “coroner to the stars,” was accused of mismanagement and lost his job.
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