The city of Santa Clarita expanded the scope and budget for a series of statues proposed to honor first responders in front of the city’s Santa Clarita Sports Complex.
The proposal brought back by city staff Tuesday called for three life-sized bronze statues — a clean-shaven sheriff’s deputy, a mustachioed firefighter holding an axe and a female emergency medical technician.
Council members offered their critiques and suggestions for the staff plan, which ranged from a call for more female representation to more first responders to questions about whether it could be made to look more “Santa Clarita.”
Councilwoman Marsha McLean said she felt there should be more representation.
“This is not at all what I thought was going to be brought back to us,” she said, clearly disappointed with the three-statue option from Big Statues, which was the winning bid from the city selection committee at $203,000.
“We have women firefighters and we have women (in) law enforcement,” she said. “And why do we have one statue depicting the woman as an (emergency medical technician). I absolutely think this is an affront to trying to do what we wanted to do, which is to have a project that includes all first responders, in all three of these certain professions.”
Mayor Bill Miranda questioned why McLean wanted to increase the budget to $1 million or $2 million for the project, when the city was looking to spend a fraction of that — a budget that already has doubled since the original inquiry.
City Manager Ken Striplin mentioned that staff could give instructions to the artist to “bring out the L.A. on it,” in reference to making it clearer that the responders represent L.A. County Fire and the Sheriff’s Department, such as making the badges more prominent. He added that the plans presented were very close to the previous discussion.
Mayor Laurene Weste said she wasn’t as concerned about the aesthetics of the badges as she was making sure that all of the area’s first responders are included in the plan, which would add a fourth statue, for an officer from the California Highway Patrol.
“I think we all want to make sure we’re happy with what’s going to represent them,” Weste said. “This is basically to give a tribute to them — it is not art created; it is just literally something that we contribute.”
She said she was good with the basic design if everyone else was, but she did want to see CHP representation.
Striplin said the city had a “contingency account” available, but expanding the project to a fourth figure would add about $75,000 to the cost, bringing it to approximately $278,000.
The current budget now approved by the council is more than double what was originally considered by Miranda. He initially proposed the dedication in January, and said he would be fine with the addition, as long as the only delay would be in building another statue, and not in the approval of the plan.
The original budget for the project called for how the city might create a tribute for first responders with nearly $125,000 in funding that was not used for the art component in The Rink, the city’s multiuse roller skating arena that’s being planned. The city sets aside 1% of an identified project cost for an art installation to beautify the facility.
In 2024, the city identified a goal of June 2026 for its new $25 million facility adjacent to the Santa Clarita Sports Complex.
