Students get ready to run city

Consensus in the City Council chambers last week was strong: The doomed skate park next to Huntington Beach High School should be replaced by a much bigger facility in the Central Park Sports Complex, funded by a big sponsor like Volcom.

“I support the creation of a bigger park, seeing as it will draw more kids and give them all a place to skate,” Councilwoman Madeline McKinley said before a 7-0 vote to have city staff move forward on the issue.

Haven’t heard of her before?

That’s because it was the city’s annual Youth in Government Day, and the vote was at a mock council meeting run by students. Teens from the city’s four public high schools voted, gave staff reports and made public comments on issues that affected them most.

Before the meeting, the more than 170 participants split up to shadow members of city government, from council members to city planners. While city officials across all agencies took part, the money came solely from fundraising by the student members of the city Youth Board.

Police Lt. Tom Donnelly showed a handful of teens around Huntington Beach police headquarters, from the Narcotics Division — with its cannabis leaves jokingly stenciled on the walls — to the padded cells for mentally unbalanced arrestees, to the SWAT team lockers full of heavy weaponry that almost never has to be fired.

“We never shot at anyone in the time I was on the team,” Donnelly told students while holding up an M4 rifle.

Sgt. Ray Villescas brought his group to the Joint Powers Training Center on Gothard Street, where he showed them the helicopters he’s been in charge of for a year. Mindful that far more girls were on the police tours this year than boys, he told his group that law enforcement is looking for talent regardless of gender.

“We want the smartest people and the best thinkers,” he said, holding up a magazine issue devoted to women in helicopter law enforcement to drive home his point. “If you have that, we can teach you how to be a SWAT guy or a SWAT gal, or anything else.”

The experience was eye-opening, said Ocean View High School senior Chloe Hernandez.

“My dad’s a police officer, so I wanted to see this for myself,” she said. “There’s so many things [offered] here you don’t even think about.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes.com.