San Francisco has handed the keys to its new watchdog office to a familiar federal prosecutor, Alexandra Shepard, who is now the city’s inspector general, charged with rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse across municipal government.
Shepard, who helped prosecute the high-profile Mohammed Nuru bribery case, officially started this month after a national search run by the Controller’s Office. Voters created the inspector general role last year to centralize oversight of city contracting and public integrity, a response to a long run of ethics headaches at City Hall.
According to a Controller’s Office press release on SF.gov, Controller Greg Wagner selected Shepard following a months-long national recruitment and listed her start date as Jan. 5, 2026. SF.gov states that the inspector general will lead investigations into fraud, waste, and abuse and make policy recommendations to the mayor and Board of Supervisors, and it also provides a contact email along with the Controller’s City Hall office address.
Shepard brings more than 25 years of investigative and legal experience, having spent over a decade in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California in 2020, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle reports that she has handled public corruption, money laundering, and narcotics cases and served as a technical adviser on competition and anti-corruption issues in Kyiv. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Dartmouth College, the paper adds.
What the inspector general can do
The inspector general’s mandate includes reviewing whistleblower complaints, auditing city contracting, and recommending policy changes to prevent misconduct, according to the city’s implementation materials. SF.gov explains that the office can subpoena testimony and records from city contractors and seek search warrants through the courts. The law also requires the inspector general to report publicly at least twice a year and gives the office authority to hold hearings.
Why Shepard was picked
City leaders said they wanted someone who had already wrestled with complex corruption and procurement schemes, and Shepard’s work on the Mohammed Nuru prosecution checked that box in a big way. The San Francisco Standard reports that Shepard urged a tough sentence for Nuru and described his conduct in court filings as emblematic of long-running abuse of public office. Her prosecutors’ background, the Standard notes, is central to why the Controller’s Office is pitching her as the independent watchdog the city needs.
How this changes City Hall oversight
Working inside the Controller’s Office, the inspector general will be positioned to coordinate with the City Attorney, the District Attorney, and the Ethics Commission while maintaining arm’s-length independence from day-to-day politics. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the office was designed to centralize probes that previously fell to multiple agencies and to make findings public. Observers have said the new office could change how contractors and nonprofits that do business with the city are monitored.
Shepard’s immediate tasks will include writing procedures for handling whistleblower tips, building a staff, and setting priorities for the new office, officials told reporters. The San Francisco Standard reports she is expected to publish regular public reports once those systems are in place. Officials say the office will announce more details on staffing and the whistleblower intake process in the coming months.
