Will Amy Poehler’s sitcom hold a warped mirror up to local parks departments?

“Deputy Don” Colvin seems a lot more like Joe Pesci than Amy Poehler.

Like Pesci, the deputy director of Indy Parks and Recreation isn’t very tall, but he has an oversized personality. And his East Coast accent is so thick that his staff redubbed the city’s “bark parks” as “canine companion zones.” Deputy Don’s Rhode Island spin made the phrase sound more like “bock pocks.”

But even though he plays the tough guy, he’s usually harmless.

Not so innocuous, though, that — like Poehler’s character on the new “Parks & Recreation” show set in Indiana — he won’t ambitiously handle problems in any of the 206 parks he helps oversee in Marion County.

Like, for instance, when he noticed two park rangers inexplicably parked side by side on a patch of grass at Brookside Park.

“I don’t know what those guys are doing,” Deputy Don says, slowing down his Indy Parks-issued white minivan. “What could they be doing?”

But he’s got a parks board meeting to go to, so Deputy Don doesn’t stop. He’ll deal with it later.

“A person in this type of position has to be able to multitask,” he said.

Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, quickly learns that, too. Like Deputy Don, she’s a deputy director of Parks and Recreation. She works in Pawnee, Ind. — a fictional city 90 miles from Indianapolis and the setting of the new NBC sitcom, premiering at 8:30 p.m. April 9. Played by the “Saturday Night Live” alumna, Leslie’s a smartly suited, naïve-but-ambitious, mid-level government employee with aspirations to one day become the first female president.

The show is from the same people who created “The Office,” and will be very much in the same tone: 30 minutes making fun of mundane reality.

Rashida Jones (from “The Office” and “I Love You, Man”) and Aziz Ansari (“Human Giant”) also star in the show, described on NBC’s Web site as a “half-hour mockumentary that looks at the exciting world of local government.” The producers hope the series will score as many viewers and as much buzz as its other low-stakes, high-drama comedy, “The Office.”

Yet, according to Metromix.com, a focus group that got a chance to preview the show thought it wasn’t so hilarious. They said the show was too slow and too similar to “The Office,” sans hot characters like Jim Halpert.

For those in parks departments, there’s a hope the show will offer some insight into the hard work that goes into planning and maintaining a city’s parks.

“Maybe people will get more interested in what those departments do,” said Jeff Madsen, director of recreation for the Parks and Recreation Department in Greenwood, who plans to watch the premiere.

Even though some of scenes are far-fetched (such as Leslie putting speed bumps on a slide, or Ansari’s character finding a human bone), others are a little too realistic.

“We’ve found some things I can’t talk about,” Deputy Don said. “I’ve not ever had the experience of finding a bra. Dog bones, yes. Human bones? No.”

But he can definitely identify with the scene where Leslie anticipates a large turnout at a public meeting — only for the camera to pan to mostly empty seats.

“Unless I say I’m selling a park, closing down a pool or tearing down a building, I can’t fill my meeting,” Deputy Don said. “I’ll have more staff there than the public.”

Other previews show Leslie dealing with angry members of the public during meetings, something Deputy Don regularly deals with.

“Our relationship with the public is such a wrestling match sometimes,” he said. His 14-year-old daughter, Victoria, once came to a meeting, and she was horrified. “She said, ‘Daddy, why is everyone so mean to you?’”

But Deputy Don views his role as one of public service, so he takes the lashings to move toward the ultimate good. He’s helped develop parks in economically depressed areas, and watched children take care of it like it was their own.

“I really believe in what we do,” he said. “We reach out so much into these neighborhoods.”

There’s a reason the show seems so real in many ways — the show’s producers did their homework. (Indy.com requests to interview Poehler or the show’s producers went unanswered.)

“They asked us if we had any story ideas,” said Ted Bumbleburg, Lafayette Parks and Recreation Department superintendent. “It was just kind of out of the blue.”

Bumbleburg said the Lafayette department donated out-of-date brochures and pamphlets. The show’s producers approached Indy Parks for the same reason, parks spokeswoman Paula Freund said. And they were all too happy to donate project plans, brochures and other materials, she said.

“We have a sense of humor,” she said. “You have to have a sense of humor about yourself.”

It’s unknown why the show’s producers chose to focus on Indiana. The state seal is a strong visual throughout the previews, on the show’s Web site, and on the faux Pawnee site, www.pawneeindiana.com. (There’s also what looks to be an old photo of Larry Bird on Poehler’s character’s desk.)

“My friends back East say it’s all soybeans and cornstalks,” Deputy Don said, laughing.

He, along with other parks leaders, hope the show doesn’t make them look bad.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt parks and rec departments in Indiana,” Bumbleburg said. “They’re in support of it, and we’re taking it as it is — a TV show. We just have to look at it as a way of having fun.”

Evan Springer, executive director of Greenwood Parks and Recreation, wasn’t as lighthearted when he first heard of the show. That’s because he heard a rumor it was based on Greenwood, and “the fear of God went right through me.”

Even though the series wasn’t modeled after just one city, the Hoosier parks know they’ll find familiarities.

“I think everyone’s pretty anxious to see what it’s all about. I’ll watch it to see what it’s about, but I don’t know that I’ll be a loyal fan,” Springer said. “’Survivor’s’ my show.”