TORONTO – A Toronto city official says the mayor’s office didn’t ask municipal staff to destroy any documents — the latest allegation to surface in the ongoing crack cocaine scandal surrounding Rob Ford.

A report published in the Toronto Star says the mayor’s office has ordered that telephone and email records belonging to three former aides be deleted.

The newspaper cites anonymous sources, and says one of the people it spoke to expressed concerns that evidence related to the drug controversy could be wiped out.

The Star and the U.S. website Gawker reported earlier this month that Ford was captured on video smoking what appears to be crack cocaine, though the Star itself has said it could not vouch for its authenticity. The mayor has denied the accusation and the clip’s existence.

When asked about the new allegations today, Ford kept silent, but the city’s director of strategic communications later issued a statement saying municipal bylaws prohibit the destruction of city records.

The mayor parted ways with his chief of staff last week and lost two of his spokesmen this week, and the Star alleges their records are the ones targeted for elimination.

Ontario’s privacy commissioner says she sent Ford a letter Wednesday after hearing the allegations, warning him that “any inappropriate destruction of records has the potential to erode the public’s trust.”

Ann Cavoukian says that while documents related to personal, political or constituency matters are exempt from municipal freedom of information laws, it can be tricky to determine what falls under those categories.

“There’s often grey areas, and so we always say that the premature destruction of records prevents the public and us from making a determination,” she says.

She wouldn’t, however, comment on whether documents linked to the alleged video would be exempt from the regulations.