HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-12-18 - Herb Borock
Proclamation
Commending Herb Borock
WHEREAS, Herb Borock began his community activism in the fall of 1968 as a volunteer
helping with a petition campaign to qualify Senator Eugene McCarthy as a write-in candidate for the
Presidential election, which led to his coordinating the local precinct organization for the re-election
of Senator Alan Cranston; and
WHEREAS, also in the fall of 1968, Herb Borock registered for a course on the Strategy and
Tactics of Confrontation Politics at the Midpeninsula Free University that led to his participation in
successful mass political movements against classified research at Stanford and ROTC at Stanford;
and
WHEREAS, Herb Borock participated in the Associated Students of Stanford University
(ASSU) where he served as Parliamentarian of the ASSU Senate, a member of the Nominations
Committee, and an alternate to the Stanford Judicial Council; and
WHEREAS, in the fall of 1969, Herb Borock was Northern California’s coordinator of a petition
campaign to lower the voting age to 18; and
WHEREAS, following the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, Herb Borock coordinated the
initiative petition campaign to place a rent relief initiative measure on the ballot that obtained the
required 12% valid signatures of registered voters in three-and-a-half weeks; and
WHEREAS, Herb Borock was treasurer of both the Palo Alto Citizens for Rent Relief and Palo
Alto Area Democratic Association (1978-79); a District-level delegate to the 1980 Democratic
National Convention for Senator Ted Kennedy; Coordinator of the Baylands Conservation
Committee (1980-81); publicity Chairman of the Palo Alto Civic League (1982-83); Chairman of the
Midpeninsula Freeze Campaign (1982-85); member of the California Democratic Party Platform
Task Force on World Peace and International Relations (1983-84); member of the Board of Directors
of the Midpeninsula Peace Center (1983-85) where he served as Secretary in 1984, Chairman in 1985
and Treasurer from 1985-87; and was a member of the Executive Board of Urban Ministry of Palo
Alto (1999-2000); and
WHEREAS, Herb Borock currently focuses his community activities on Palo Alto City Council
where he is a frequent advocate to encourage City officials to comply with the Conflict of Interest
laws, the Public Records Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and the Brown Act; to
require City Council appointed committees, boards, and commissions to be advisory to the Council;
and for the City Council to provide proper oversight of Council Appointed Officers; and
WHEREAS, Herb Borock has written articles on local political issues in the Stanford Daily,
the monthly Grapevine newspaper, and the Palo Alto Weekly. He also contributed articles to The
People’s Almanac (Doubleday: 1975), the People’s Almanac #2 (Bantam Books: 1978), Big
Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate (Ramparts Press: 1974), and In
These Times.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Lydia Kou, Mayor of the City of Palo Alto on behalf of the City
Council commend and honor Herb Borock’s many decades of devotion, institutional knowledge,
and service to the City of Palo Alto.
PRESENTED: December 18, 2023
______________________________
Lydia Kou
Mayor