“They really believe we’re stupid,” said Newell Normand of the unfolding controversy surrounding Orleans Parish Communications District Director Tyrell Morris.
This week, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that Morris will stay in his position through September, despite allegations that he crashed his city-owned car and others related to altered public records.
“Tyrell Morris, director of OPCD, is a vital part of our public safety team,” the mayor said. “That’s something that we will continue to engage him as our director.”
However, Normand noted that Cantrell ousted the previous director, Stephen Gordon, in the middle of the 2018 hurricane season. Nola.com reported at the time that he had been fired with little explanation.
“She decided – on a whim – she had reviewed his time in that office and his accomplishments and, I guess, he wasn’t enough of a con artist to satisfy the whims of the mayor,” said Normand.
WWL reported this week that Morris faces an investigation by the Office of Inspector General and that a request from the leaders of the New Orleans City Council to look into him. Per a WWL-TV report, he wrecked his city-owned car May 7 and instructed the 911 dispatcher to mark the incident as “Necessary Action Taken,” with no report ever made with the New Orleans Police Department. He also apparently did not take an alcohol or drug test.
Although Morris announced his resignation, he said it was to spend time with his family and pursue a graduate degree. Now, in the wake of the scandal, Normand said that official communications on the matter don’t make sense.
“They run violative of common sense as it relates to managing an organization,” he said.
A frequent critic of the mayor who inspired an attempted recall of Cantrell, Normand said this is just another example of her approach to leading the city.
“This is exactly what I warned everybody of with the failure of the recall… the level of arrogance was going to be second to none,” he said. “She was going to be Teflon. She didn’t care. She doesn’t care. She just continues with the con.”
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