The city of Santa Clarita celebrated Thursday the delivery of a long-awaited resource intended to help the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department with its local emergency response: a mobile command unit.
Santa Clarita City Council members gave a special thank you Thursday to 40th District Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, who first presented a $1.5 million check to the Santa Clarita City Council in October 2023 for the specialized mobile command unit.
Schiavo mentioned Thursday in a brief news conference after the State of the City ceremony that the check was a part of her first-ever budget request during her first term.
“I guess it takes a while to build one of these things,” she joked during the ribbon-cutting, adding on a more serious note that she saw firsthand during the Hughes Fire how these vehicles help first responders with the necessary cooperation when they’re responding to emergencies with decisions that can have life-or-death consequences.
“You can do all of the things that you need to do to really have a good understanding of what decisions you need to make, where you need to put resources,” she said, adding in her comments that her previous work with RN Response involved coordinating when and where nurses would be dispatched in similar disaster situations.
The purchase of the Santa Clarita C-45X-4 Mobile Command Proposal came together from a combination of state funds and a federal grant, according to city officials in their initial purchase report: approximately $1.29 million from the general fund, thanks to the state budget allocation; approximately $120,000 from miscellaneous grants, including the state’s asset forfeiture fund; and a federal grant, for approximately $90,000.
“The city is highly susceptible to hazards such as wildfires, earthquakes and power-outage events, often requiring the city’s emergency response,” according to the council’s agenda in 2023, when the budget request was granted. “To enhance the city’s emergency response through increased situational awareness and effective communication with other agencies during emergencies, acquiring a mobile command unit was identified in the city’s five-year strategic plan Santa Clarita 2025.”
