Even though there’s nothing technically wrong with KGHM Ajax trying to set up private meetings with City council candidates, the company was smart to call the whole thing off. As you will read elsewhere in today’s Daily News, the corporate brass decided the process had quickly become tainted by news coverage. Well, this is politics — did the KGHM Ajax brain trust expect they could keep those meetings a secret, or that nobody would care? As good as it might be at building and operating mines, this international conglomerate probably needs to review its strategic communications plan. It’s entirely typical, though, that a proponent of a sensitive project would try to get the ear of local politicians. The only thing really different about this one is that it comes just as an election campaign is about to get underway, and that it includes people who aren’t yet elected. In advance of public hearings on rezonings, for example, developers often try to corner City councillors in hopes of getting their blessings. The theory is that if a politician privately indicates support, he or she is not going to betray that commitment when it comes time to vote. A smart City councillor, … Continue reading Where the hell is the Ajax mine, anyway?