Iowa official ousted after Tupac lyrics email to announce retaliation claim

The former Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) director who was reportedly asked to step down after he sent an agency-wide email featuring song lyrics from the rapper Tupac Shakur said he will file a wrongful termination lawsuit saying he was the victim of whistleblower retaliation.

Tom Duff, an attorney representing former department head Jerry Foxhoven, told The Associated Press Foxhoven will be filing a claim with the State Appeal Board saying that he was let go over his objection to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s (R) chief of staff’s pay coming out of the DHS’s budget.

{mosads}He also cited the department funding the salary of the governor’s health adviser, Liz Matney. 

Foxhoven approved memorandums of understanding twice that the DHS would fund 69 percent of Reynolds chief of staff Sara Craig Gongol’s salary. Duff told the AP the arrangements were made because Thorson was working with Iowa’s Medicaid director, but said that should have changed to the governor’s office paying her salary when she was no longer helping the director.

Duff said Foxhoven was concerned he would be blamed if an audit of the department’s budget found that the setup was inappropriate and he was asked to step down before he could get an opinion from the governor’s legal adviser.

Foxhoven is expected to announce his claim at a news conference Thursday.

Reynolds said she wanted to make the change in the department due to problems at the agency, the AP reported.

“I want to be clear, he never raised any concerns to me or my office about anything,” Reynolds said of Foxhoven’s chief of staff salary concerns, the AP reported. 

She also denied that Foxhoven was fired over his message that included rap lyrics from Shakur.

Foxhoven made headlines after he was asked to step down following his agency-wide email.

He is reportedly a huge fan of the late rapper and had even hosted weekly “Tupac Fridays” at the office, according to the AP.

He also brought Shakur-themed cookies to the office for his 65th birthday with famous phrases from the rapper like “Thug life” written on them.