CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: RULES NOTED, RESPECTED IN STATE ASSEMBLY.

Byline: Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber

ASSEMBLYMAN Tony Strickland, R-Camarillo, is that body's youngest member at age 29. And at 6 feet 5 inches, he's the tallest.

He used to play college basketball. That's probably a good thing, because Thursday he took a parliamentary elbow in the face that might have leveled Karl Malone.

The Assembly was in full swing, jawing its way through a couple dozen bills as it raced toward legislative deadlines. The item on the floor was AB 351, which would move oversight in HMO mergers from the governor's domain to the attorney general's.

Republican Strickland rose to address the body, reading verbatim from a statement that pondered why Democrats would want to make such a move when they finally have a Democrat in the governor's office. Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, jumped to his feet, demanding a point of order.

``Mr. Strickland is reading!'' objected the Glendale Democrat. ``Assembly rules prohibit members from reading statements.''

Speaker pro tem Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz, told Strickland to stop reading. Strickland, looking pained, picked up his speech and began to read it again. Another point of order was shouted out by another Democrat, Kevin Shelley of San Francisco.

Perplexed, we asked Wildman why members can't read from their notes. He grinned. ``The idea is to stop legislators from reading verbatim - maybe a statement written by a lobbyist - but must speak for themselves about what's on their minds. They can refer to notes but not read speeches. We particularly like to remind new members of the rule.''

Strickland was not amused. ``They made a big deal about this because I'm a Republican. It was a cheap shot. The other side reads things all the time.''

Tall Tony did pick up one unlikely ally from ``the other side.'' Assembly veteran Dick Floyd, D-Carson, rose to his defense.

``I have no objection to young members reading on the floor,'' Floyd told the body. ``It's encouraging for us to know they can read.''

Dismaying disarray

It was annoying but understandable when the governor's communication staff was in disarray during Gray Davis' first week in office. Five months later, we don't feel so forgiving.

Last week was the administration's chance to trot out the governor's revised budget, handing out a few crumbs of information beforehand to the starving press corps on how the estimated $4 billion surplus will be spent. The whole enterprise was disastrous.

On Tuesday, harried staffers in the governor's office called reporters, saying a background briefing was being held immediately. No advance notice was possible, they said, because they just found out about it themselves.

On Wednesday, a briefing set for 1 p.m. was switched to 12:30 - but the governor's office forgot to tell the press corps.

On Thursday, when Davis officials handed out some details on the governor's $1 billion infrastructure plan, some reporters weren't even told. Later, embarrassed staff members told reporters they ``just didn't know how it happened.''

Somehow, though, the communications office was able to put out this riveting news advisory: First lady Sharon Davis would be participating in the 11th annual Scientist Day, to be held on the Capitol's west lawn.

Bill to watch

AB 414, by Assemblywoman Sally Havice, D-Cerritos, would give taxpayers the same length of time to file for a refund as the state's Franchise Tax Board has to dun taxpayers for additional assessments.