The Berkeley City Council may call for the investigation of a UC Berkeley professor at its meeting next Monday, continuing its trend of taking stands on controversial national issues.

But some council members are starting to tire of the council's involvement in national issues, saying it detracts from real problems closer to home.

An item from the city's Peace and Justice Commission seeks to add the city's name to a letter to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau calling for an investigation of John Yoo, a professor at Boalt Hall School of Law.

The item also recommends that the city ask the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California to bring charges of war crimes against Yoo and that the U.S. Attorney General be asked to do the same in Feb. 2009.

As an employee of the Department of Justice from 2001-03, Yoo authored memos for the Bush administration that some say condone torture.

The item also recommends that all non-elective courses taught by Yoo should be offered simultaneously with another professor so that students are not "delayed in their fulfillment of non-elective courses due to their distaste for taking a class with someone who wrote memoranda that authorized the use of pain, violence and degrading treatment as a method of treatment of persons in U.S. custody."

Boalt Hall dean Christopher Edley. Jr. said Yoo's ideological positions were unrelated to his teaching abilities.

"I have no evidence from students or others that the actual content of any course is academically inappropriate under any principled standard one might adopt," he said in a statement.

This item is the most recent of numerous council positions on national issues, the most infamous of which came after a 2007 meeting in which the council called the Marine Corps "uninvited and unwelcome" intruders in Berkeley.

The statement, which originated with the Peace and Justice Commission, ignited a national protest and resulted in attempts to remove Congressional funding for the campus.

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said discussing national issues distracts the council from local problems.

"We spend more time talking about John Yoo than we do about crime," he said.

The item was moved from the council consent calendar to the action calendar in anticipation of the large numbers of people that may speak on it.

The move to the action calendar may also reflect an uncertainty by the council to pass the item without extended debate, perhaps as a result of lessons learned from the Marine recruiting center issue.

All items on the consent calendar are passed with a single-usually unanimous-council vote, while action calendar items are voted on by each council member separately.

Council members themselves may get in on the debate Monday night.

Wozniak said he would vote against the item because he thought it set a "dangerous precedent," because the council would be saying Yoo should be investigated for his ideological beliefs.

But Bob Meola, chair of the commission, said the council should take a position on Yoo because many residents are interested in his record.

"There's a lot of interest in the community to hold the numerous war criminals in Bush administration accountable for their crimes," he said.

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, however, said he might vote for the item if the language recommendation to offer alternative professors for courses taught by Yoo can be changed.

In their reelection campaigns, several council members pledged to repair the difficult relationship between the city and the campus but fear this item may be a step in the wrong direction.

Besides the loss of campus funding that could have resulted from the Marine recruiting center issue, campus-council relations have been strained due to development issues ranging from Downtown Berkeley to the athletic center at Memorial Stadium.

Wozniak said the item will likely not help repair the relationship.

"The city would not look kindly if the university told us they did not like some employee and started meddling in town affairs," he said.

Tags: BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL, JOHN YOO