CITY HALL OPENS DOORS TO GROUP OF VISITING GIRLS.

Byline: Cynthia Teed Daily News Staff Writer

It was kids day at City Hall Thursday where employees were encouraged to bring their daughters - and sons - to work to see what the grown-ups all day.

More than 20 youngsters took part in the Ms. Foundation's seventh-annual Take our Daughters to Work Day at Santa Clarita City Hall, where they followed their moms and dads around, did a little work and had some fun.

The half day allows local parents to give their offspring a glimpse of what it's like on the job.

Fifth-grader Heather Roney spent the day with her mom, Jenny Roney, Santa Clarita's human resources manager. Roney has built a career for the past several years supervising personnel issues for the city and knows the importance of on-the-job training - the earlier the better.

So she teamed Heather with third-grader Kiersten Haub to do a little filing and a lot of paper shredding for Kiersten's aunt, Michelle Nelson, human resources technician.

These youngsters are getting a head start in the world of work because their moms are aware that by 2005 two out of three new workers will be women, making up 48 percent of total paid workers.

So girls represent the work force of the future, but recent studies show that while most feel confident in themselves at the age of 9, more than two-thirds have lost this self-confidence by the time they reach high school, a situation that can curb their successful development into adulthood.

On Wednesday, these two well-dressed and well-mannered young ladies showed a great amount of self-confidence and a willingness to work that any employer would covet.

``It's really fun to come here,'' Heather said as she filed a big stack of papers. ``I'd rather be here than at school.''

And Kiersten, although two years younger, agrees with Heather's assessment of the world of work. Both girls say they still want to be teachers when they grow up because they love their teachers and maybe because teaching has always been a traditional choice for women.

But by exposure to different work scenarios, 20 to 30 children who came to work Thursday at City Hall with their parents had a chance to explore career possibilities while discovering what their parents do each day for a living.

Meanwhile the girls made themselves useful by faxing and mailing, while snacking on a few pink doughnuts with sprinkles, Roney said.

``And it works well with just a few hours in the morning to get offspring familiarized with what we do on the job,'' said city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz. ``Then we take the kids to lunch and dialogue with them to see what they thought, how they enjoyed their day.''

Girls just want to have fun to be sure, but so do boys, who are also welcome at City Hall on a day nationally designated for daughters, Ortiz added. ``Of course we welcome the boys because we don't discriminate at City Hall.''

One of the four Weber boys came to visit his dad's office in the Parks and Recreation Department. Mitch Weber, 9, joined Park Superintendent Wayne Weber and helped his dad answer e-mail, visited the Central Park construction site and met some city inspectors.

``The big, huge scrapers pushed by bulldozers were pretty neat, too,'' he said.