Paul Bender

Professor Paul Bender was quoted in a recent Arizona Republic article titled “Phoenix panel told not to post about dog park online.”

The Dec. 25 article by Emily Gersema discussed the directive from Phoenix staffers that a 73-member committee charged with finding a location for a new dog park should not discuss their meetings and opinions on blogs or Twitter because it might violate the state’s public-meeting laws. Some member of the committee believe the directive violates their free speech.

Bender told Gersema that he thought city staff would encourage blogging because it is transparent and provides public information.

“My reaction … is that if the blog is open to the public, I don’t think it would violate the open-meeting law,” Bender told Gersema. “The spirit of the open-meeting law is that the committee is not supposed to be getting together in private.”

Read the article here.