Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Iowa Official, 66, Says His Love of Tupac Wasn’t What Got Him Fired

Jerry Foxhoven, the former director of the state’s Department of Human Services, was removed days after he sent an email celebrating the rapper to 4,300 employees.

Jerry Foxhoven said he thought it was a “coincidence” that he was forced out of his government job after he sent an office-wide email celebrating Tupac Shakur.Credit...Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register, via Associated Press

The timing certainly seemed suspicious.

One day last month, Jerry Foxhoven, 66, the director of Iowa’s Department of Human Services, sent an email celebrating the rapper Tupac Shakur to all 4,300 agency employees.

A few days later, he was ordered to resign. Some of his former employees thought the email was to blame.

But, in a phone interview, Mr. Foxhoven said his frequent quoting of Tupac at work — detailed in 350 pages of internal emails first obtained by The Associated Press — was simply intended to raise morale at the troubled agency. He did not believe it led to his removal.

“I think it’s a coincidence,” Mr. Foxhoven said.

He explained that the office of Gov. Kim Reynolds had requested a meeting with him days before he sent the office-wide email June 14.

In that message, Mr. Foxhoven reminded employees that Father’s Day was coming up and that it coincided with Tupac’s birthday, June 16. He included what he said was “an inspirational quote”: “Pay no mind to those who talk behind your back; it simply means that you are two steps ahead.”

The emails obtained by The A.P., and later by The New York Times, show that Mr. Foxhoven, who described himself as “a 66-year-old white guy,” often referred to Tupac in messages, and even held “Tupac Fridays” in the office. A birthday party featured cookies decorated with the phrase “Thug Life.” He also quoted other celebrities in holiday-themed messages.

The emails show that many employees responded positively.

Image

“I love your 2Pac messages,” one manager wrote June 14. “And the fact that you still send them (despite the haters) makes me appreciate them even more.”

The next Monday, Mr. Foxhoven said, he met with Ms. Reynolds’s chief of staff and was told that the governor wanted to take the agency in a different direction. He agreed to resign.

Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, had praised Mr. Foxhoven as a “compassionate, thoughtful leader” when she appointed him in June 2017. He had previously worked as a lawyer, professor and children’s rights advocate.

He said he had been brought in to “right the ship” and raise morale during a period of turmoil at the agency, including fallout from the deaths of two teenagers who had been adopted out of foster care and major problems with the Medicaid system.

“We made a lot of progress,” he said.

He added that many directors do not serve long terms, and that his two-year tenure meant that he had outlasted many of his predecessors.

Ms. Reynolds had served as lieutenant governor under Terry Branstad, who was nominated as ambassador to China in December 2016. She assumed the governor’s office in 2017 and won an election for the seat the next year. Mr. Foxhoven said he believed she was simply filling posts with “more political people.”

Her office did not return calls on Wednesday. Last month, she told reporters that “a lot of factors” had gone into the decision to remove Mr. Foxhoven, but would not say whether the move was tied to disciplinary action. Gerd W. Clabaugh, the director of the Department of Public Health, was appointed as interim director of human services.

Mr. Foxhoven said his quoting of Tupac and his holiday messages were meant to “add a little levity and humanness” to the office. He added that he had been a Tupac fan since the ’90s.

Image
Tupac Shakur in 1996, the year he was killed. Credit...Frank Wiese/Associated Press

“I would say Tupac is by far my favorite, second would be Snoop Dogg,” he said, adding that he also likes jazz and rock.

Tupac, who was 25 when he was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, could be a controversial figure; critics said he glorified gang life. But he is widely seen as one of the greatest rappers ever, praised for his lyricism and the forthright way he addressed pressing social issues.

Mr. Foxhoven said that he appreciated the socially conscious messages in Tupac’s work, and that he had shared only quotations that fit with the agency’s mission.

He referred to a poem Tupac wrote called “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.”

“I think the message that he had was very much in tune with what we say about helping families and children in today’s world,” he said.

Mark Walker contributed reporting from Washington.

Karen Zraick is a New York-based reporter and editor, covering a wide variety of stories with a focus on breaking news. Previously she wrote the Evening and Weekend Briefings, and worked on the International Desk and the home page team. More about Karen Zraick

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT