CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: DAVIS PLEDGES KUDOS IF TEAM BOOSTS GRADES.

Byline: Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber

GOV. Gray Davis is so committed to reforming the public school system that he's apparently prepared to do it one campus at a time.

Last week, Davis visited Richmond High School in the Bay Area to support the decision of the school's basketball coach to bench his entire team because he was concerned that the students had not been paying attention to their studies.

In a locker-room pep talk, the governor challenged the team to go past the school's requirement of a mandatory 2.3 grade average for student athletes and reach a 2.8.

If successful, Davis promised he would proclaim a statewide ``Richmond High School basketball team day.''

A nice idea, governor, but even at the rate of one school per day, it would take nearly 22 years to get every school in the state up to par.

Davis does have another, speedier ``fast-track'' approach for school accountability, one that would include overseeing the progress and establishing goals for 200 underachieving campuses per year.

At a meeting of the Sacramento Press Club on Thursday, Davis said by 2000 he also intends to post test scores, attendance rates and graduation rates from each school in the state on a Web site so everyone is held accountable.

Schools that show ``substantial progress'' will get a $150-per-student grant to spend any way they choose - including textbooks and raises for principals and teachers.

The governor warned that Californians wouldn't wait long for reform and that the time to act is now.

``If we don't do it, we're looking at vouchers or some other seemingly attractive concept that will be imposed on us by the voters,'' Davis said.

While it's true that Davis is a touch more animated in smaller settings, he's a notoriously wooden public speaker, and may be the most monochromatic California governor in the state's 150-year history.

His name is Gray, his hair is gray, his suits are gray, his speech delivery is gray. So it stands to reason that his favorite drink is . . . Earl Grey tea.

Talk about heavy metal. New Attorney General Bill Lockyer is moving fast to dismantle the heavy-duty office security system installed by his predecessor, unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate and Long Beach native Dan Lungren.

Lungren's elaborate precautions are worthy of Tel Aviv, maybe, but Sacramento? Lockyer doesn't think so.

Lungren's official parking space, big enough for two cars, was sealed with a steel gate and monitored by security cameras. Lockyer calls it ``the bomb shelter.''

After parking his state-owned Ford Explorer, Lungren could walk to his private elevator entrance. One of the six elevators in the building would be emptied of other passengers so the A.G. could have a private ride to his office, 17 floors up.

Lungren had to turn in his Explorer when he left office. Last week The Sacramento Bee reported that the longtime state official is in the market for a used Cadillac.

BILLS TO WATCH: A bill by Assemblyman Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, that would restore the eight-hour workday has moved to the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee. . . . Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, introduced a bill to reappropriate money for development of Mission College; a bill for small-business financial development offices in the cities of San Fernando, San Jose and Santa Ana;, and a bill to prohibit cities and counties from requiring home-based workers to have business licenses or pay business taxes or registration fees. . . . State Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Montebello, introduced legislation to provide low-income Californians access to affordable, $300-a-year auto insurance.