Ohio: Union Township Officials Unhappy with SHBB Inc

For the second time in 3 weeks, Clermont County, Ohio, citizen reporter/political watchdog and SHBB Inc bete noir Chris Hicks, has kicked SHBB Inc and its CEO/founder Monica Kelsey to the curb

November 11, 2025: the baby box “blessing” in Hamilton, Ohio, (and here). Mrs Kelsey refused to respond to perfectly reasonable questions posed by Hicks about her baby depositories. She not only refused but cried, ” Security! Security!” According to her standards, questioning a self-proclaimed public figure about her work is harassment,. She set that standard, however, a few years ago when she literally ran into the ladies’ room at the Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio, office building to avoid responding to his questions. Both freakouts were captured on video and posted.

December 4, 2025: Hick’s home turf–Union Township, Ohio, Fire Station #50, which he previously investigated . As a result the box was shut down for a while due to fire station and township trustee financial and procedural shenanigans.* This time around, Hicks published documented evidence of a rift between Mrs. Kesley and township trustees over who controls baby box-case publicity.

What’s the story?

In September 2025, the fire station caught a newborn (and here)–only the second in the state in about 8 years–and the spaghetti hit the fan.

Nobody knew anything about the drop-off until November 9, when Mrs Kelsey released a video on social media–serving as an official announcement–made at the time of the event but not posted, where she discusses it on the phone with her mother. From that discussion, it is easy to determine when the drop-off occurred despite her sloppy attempt to keep the details secret. When the “announcement” was released, it hit the local press. (The Kelsey video is included in Hick’s Facebook Watchdog Wire video below)

____________

As we know, Mrs. Kelsey is a stickler for “anonymity,” and also has a fetish for control. Contracts with locations require that they contact her within 2 hours of an event and that she takes the lead in publicizing it, if she so decides. That is, everybody has to keep their mouth shut until she opens hers, although she has no lawful business knowing what transpired. Last year Mrs Kelsey, in fact, went online to vent her displeasure when a news story appeared about a case in Madison, Alabama before she made her announcement. The unspoken: SHBB Inc frames the narrative.

Note: It’s important to note here that critics as well as friends of SHBB Inc complain about publicizing drop-offs, while Mrs. Kelsey responds that publicity grows$ the movement while letting mothers know that their babies are OK.

Now, it seems that Union Township officials take this vow of baby box anonymity and secrecy more seriously than does Mrs Kelsey and her Mighty Wurlitzer publicity machine.

Both Hicks and I were curious about the case when we learned about it, although all I did was post it on our Ohio Case page. Hicks. posted about it on Watch Dog Wire, and then dug. On December 4, he posted his update:

Perhaps township trustees have had it up to here with Mrs Kesley over the previous hassles and controversy over their baby abandonment box and hoped to keep their own part in the mess stuffed down their personal memory hole. (aka don’t remind the public).** Whatever went down behind closed doors, they were not amused with Mrs Kelsey’s announcement. From the information that Hick’s gathered from a public records request, we see that trustees saw no reason to publicize this case–ever.

Among texts Hicks received with his request is this doozy from Trustee Joe Dills (marker 7:00)

It doesn’t matter now, But we need to find out how it was released

Spoke to him. Monika (sic) posted today about it. If she wants to partner with us she needs to follow our rules. We want no publicity moving forward. If she can’t agree then we’ll sever our relationship.

Well……..

Since I don’t have documentation other than what Hick’s presents publicly, I don’t know what else was said, but WHOA! This is hot stuff. Pretty explicit.

Implications

The press has reported a couple of vague complaints regarding city attorneys’ legal issues with SHBB Inc.’s proposed contracts in other locations, but I’ve not seen anything this strongly worded from officials.

Without a doubt, the Union Township Trustees support baby boxes, which makes this really interesting. What happened behind the scenes? What happens if this goes south and the trustees pull their support? They could not keep the box. Since there is no box alternative to SHBB Inc. in the US, they would have to scrounge up another source, such as Gems for Gems in Canada, which has installed a handful of boxes in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. The trustees, according to Hicks, have spent 10’s of thousands of taxpayer dollars on the current box and problems related to it.** Would they want to spend more and get hammered by Hicks and locals reminded of their boondoggle?

Most likely, Union Township and SHBB Inc will kiss and make up over what will be explained as a “misunderstanding.” And it’s not likely that Fire Station #50 will become the hub of baby boxing in southwest, Ohio, so this case could be a one-off. Besides, Mrs Kelsey has not announced all of her drop-offs, and Kansas law forbids her from even being informed by officials when a drop-off occurs. Neither party would come out a winner on this, so I suspect Mrs. Kelsey has been properly corrected,

The bigger issue here is who is the gatekeeper? Who can control not only the drop-off announcement but also other aspects of the boxes: local and location procedures, signage, orange bag information, and other demands that Mrs Kelsey makes. And why in the world does she and her company hold the right to collect and maintain secret personal information, via her” registry” or other means, about the babies left in her boxes or their parents? No law in any state that I know of addresses these and other procedural issues. They should.

Is the Union Township dust-up the canary in the coal mine?

Are there other dissenting supporters in high places?

____________

*Hick’s presentation to the Ohio Public Health Review Board links: comments and presentation | video.

**Summary of Union Township problems with Safe Haven Baby Boxes.” Read more about it here

• Failure to properly staff the fire station as mandated by Ohio law and SHBB Inc protocols;

• failure to apply timely for the construction permit;

• failure to maintain proper safety and sanitation logs.

• The box was funded totally with taxpayer money (now running into tens of thousands of dollars due to legal problems and dubious fixes, including the hiring of extra staff needed to keep the box, by township politicians), when every other box in Ohio and other states is funded locally by donations from individuals, churches, civic and fraternal organizations, and businesses.

See the SSHBBN Ohio page for more Ohio news.