NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell and City Council Vice President Helena Moreno are calling for OPCD Director Tyrell Morris to be suspended from his position, effective immediately.
The letter, addressed to Chairman of OPCD, John Thomas, cites the recent allegations made against Morris of altering official policies and failing to submit a drug and alcohol screening following an accident in an OPCD vehicle.
“In light of this information, we respectfully request the OPCD Board of Directors suspend Mr. Morris effective immediately pending a full investigation into the actions related to and stemming from Mr. Morris’ car accident on May 7, 2023, in a taxpayer-provided vehicle,” the letter reads.
Monday, Moreno released a statement to WWLTV saying the allegations regarding altering documents are being reviewed by appropriate authorities.
Before Morris announced his resignation Monday, another top OPCD official was fired under mysterious circumstances.
Jared Brossett, a former state legislator and city councilman, was OPCD’s director of support services. He, too, had been involved in an accident on Elysian Fields Avenue, and the body cam video of his drunk driving arrest in 2021 effectively ended his political career.
At OPCD, Brossett oversaw human resources, facilities, capital projects, governmental affairs, and finance.
Two sources with knowledge of what happened told WWL-TV that Morris left town May 8, the day after his accident on Elysian Fields Avenue at 10:40 p.m. May 7, to attend a conference in Pasadena, Calif. When he returned to OPCD headquarters on May 12, the sources said he called a meeting of all administrative employees to complain about the fact that the media was asking about the accident. He told the gathering of a couple dozen leaders at OPCD that he believed there was a “mole” inside the agency.
Shortly after that, the New Orleans Inspector General sent OPCD requests for records, recordings and video of the accident and the policy on accidents in district-issued vehicles.
Last week, Morris went to another conference in Grapevine, Texas. The sources said the inspector general requested to interview OPCD employees and when Morris returned from Texas on Thursday, he went to Brossett’s office and told him he was one of the employees the IG wanted to interview. The next day, OPCD fired Brossett, effective immediately, with no reason given in the termination letter.
Brossett declined to comment.
Tuesday, we attempted to ask Mayor Cantrell about the allegations against Morris while at a press conference regarding heat.
“I will have my traditional Wednesday briefing on tomorrow, today heat advisory, health threat, health crisis city of New Orleans,” the Mayor said.
When asked about Morris again, Cantrell would only speak about mental health, a topic Morris mentioned in his resignation letter.
“If you think it’s relevant, great because we think mental health services are extremely relevant in the city of New Orleans, in particular for men and women who have been on the front line relentlessly over the past 4 years responding to the needs of the city. Thank you very much,” Cantrell said.
We have reached out again to the Mayor’s office by email requesting a comment, we have not heard back.
We have also repeatedly asked OPCD officials if WWL-TV can interview Morris or be sent a comment on the allegations. We were told Morris was not available Monday or Tuesday. Communications officials for OPCD told us we would be notified if he becomes available at a later date. WWL-TV then asked why he was not available to speak with us. We have not yet heard back.
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