SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Students Get an Up-Close Look at What It Takes to Run a City : Government: Two Canyon High youths are among 30 from local schools who accompany department heads and council members to learn about their jobs.

Canyon High School’s Renisa Andika spent class time last week touring Sand Canyon, checking which roads had flooded from steady rains.

Her classmate, Tammy Patterson, prepared documents for a Santa Clarita City Council meeting, while Hart High School’s Lital Barkan reviewed state and federal legislation that could affect the city.

The three seniors were among 30 students from area high schools who participated in the city’s fourth annual Youth in Government Day.

“I think it’s a good way for kids to get involved in government,” said Tammy, 17. “You have a government class, but it’s not the same.”

The students tagged along with a city department head or council member for about three hours Tuesday, getting an up-close look at what the jobs involve. It helped them prepare for a mock council meeting at City Hall, in which they voted to annex a county-owned park and create more youth activities.

Renisa, as Santa Clarita’s public works director, received reports on the city bus system’s growing ridership and continuing efforts to fight a landfill proposal. She also visited sites where maintenance workers battled flooding caused by the recent storms.

“I wanted to see how a career in city government would be,” said Renisa, 17. “They do lots of things behind the scenes that ordinary people wouldn’t know about.”

That includes shuffling a lot of paperwork, as Tammy discovered in her role as Santa Clarita’s deputy city clerk. She spent much of her day filing City Council ordinances--and quickly learned that “you don’t have to be Abraham Lincoln, or something.”

“You think it’s all politics but it’s not,” Tammy said. “The job I have almost has nothing to do with that.”

Lital, meanwhile, accompanied Councilman H. Clyde Smyth for a visit to Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon’s office, learning how local and federal governments interact. This is the second year she has participated in the program, the first in a council member role.

“It’s a lot more organized this time, and I think we’re a lot more dedicated to the agenda items,” Lital said. “It’s just like anything else. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.”

Organizers tried to streamline Youth In Government this year--reducing the number of positions from 53 to 30 and providing specific tasks for most of them. As some students prepared reports for their council meeting, others videotaped their efforts and wrote a newsletter.

“We did more in terms of teamwork things,” said Johnathan Skinner, a city recreation supervisor who coordinated the program. “I think they fostered a lot of new friendships.”

City officials appeared eager to show students their daily routines. Some made it a playful competition, trying to outdo other departments by giving students the most interesting assignments or mementos, such as jars of candy.

“Many of them see it as an opportunity at a crucial point in (students’) lives, that wasn’t available to us,” said Lynn Harris, Santa Clarita’s director of community development.

“If the engineer can make their job more exciting, maybe they can convince someone to be an engineer. If a planner can make their job seem more exciting, maybe they can convince someone to go into planning.”

Harris had apparently impressed her student counterpart, David Douglas, who said he wants to become a civil engineer or urban planner.

“I wanted to get a better understanding of my local government, because it affects me the most every day,” said David, 17. “I’ve got a clearer view now. There’s more to ideas of how a city should be than filling out some forms and saying what you want.”