Lucas County commissioners have announced the creation of a task force to evaluate its children services agency, the formation of which will be led by its former executive director, the county’s director of job and family services, and the agency’s board chairman.
Robin Reese, Breda Osburn, and Suzette Cowell will lead the selection and creation of the task force. Pete Gerken, county commissioner, announced the appointments at a news conference Friday after the Lucas County Children Services board of trustees unanimously voted for its creation.
“Where we’re at now, there’s not a lot of trust in the agency’s performance, and that’s not good for the agency, for the community, or the children in our community,” Mr. Gerken said. “Our sole purpose of this task force is to restore trust between the agency and the community that it serves.”
Ms. Cowell, the chairman of the LCCS board, also expressed her optimism about cooperating with the task force, noting that it will focus on the agency as a whole and not a specific case.
“I want you to know that my board shares the community’s grief over the death of Keimani. It is a terrible time — losing a person so young is a wound that never fully heals,” she said. “Our shared goal is broader: to ensure that every child and every family in Lucas County receives the protection and the care they deserve. Nothing can be more important.”
Details of the task force will be determined in the coming weeks, as the three begin outlining the scope of its work and begin reviewing applications. Community experts, lawyers, mandated reporters in schools, and others will compose the board.
Mrs. Reese, former director of LCCS, will come out of retirement to help assemble the task force. She was hired in 1984 as a caseworker at the agency, eventually becoming executive director in 2016 before retiring in October, 2022.
She urged the public to give caseworkers and leadership grace as they continue to serve the children in their care and field reports of child abuse and neglect from the public.
“Every child in this community is important to me, and, like everybody else, I am grieved,” Mrs. Reese said. “We need grace right now, so people won’t hesitate to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, there’s an issue.’ Our children won’t be safe if we don’t have a healthy child protection system, and I’m willing to do what I need to do to help that.”
Commissioner Anita Lopez echoed the message, citing her own experience as a caseworker.
“It is crucial that we support each other,” Ms. Lopez said. “It is easy to point fingers right now, but we need to support the individuals, because we do not need to lose staff members at this point in time. We do not need the community to worry about making a report about child abuse and neglect.”
Randall Muth, executive director of LCCS, said he is “aware that the public needs to have confidence in this agency” and hopes to release limited information to restore that trust. He spoke in support of the task force formation at the conclusion of the agency’s board meeting Thursday.
“I think the best way to build trust with the public is to look at our actions through the lens of their own good judgment,” Mr. Muth said. “We’re not able to do that right now, but once this prosecution is over, and with the help of the task force, we’ll be able to release our files and let people judge how we responded prior to Keimani’s death.”
Mr. Muth said the “facts and circumstances” of the agency’s involvement in Keimani’s case relate to a “very serious crime,” and the agency has turned over its records to the prosecutor’s office for its case against Darnell Jones, the father accused of killing Keimani.
The county has previously created task forces to investigate “troubled or underscrutinized agencies,” under the commissioners’ purview, Mr. Gerken said. Task forces have evaluated the Toledo Zoo, the county’s mental health and recovery services board, TARTA, and the county health department.
The Lucas County Children Services board is made up of Ms. Cowell, Johnetta McCollough, the Rev. Donald Perryman, Rachel Gagnon, Joseph Corfman, Timothy Meyer, Dan Dergham Ridi, Kathy Vasquez, and Jim Walrod II. All but Mr. Walrod were present at the meeting Thursday, voting in favor of the task force after an executive session discussing the details of Keimani’s case.
First Published March 28, 2025, 5:49 p.m.
