If you want good news, just pay for it yourself.
That’s exactly what the New York City Housing Authority is doing, The Post has learned.
The financially strapped agency has secretly contracted with a Seattle-based firm that specializes in suppressing negative Google-search results to “manage” the authority’s image online.
Agency officials insist the $100,000 deal is not aimed at deleting negative references on the Web; they just want to highlight the story the authority wants to tell.
“NYCHA is seeking to have more ownership of its own messages,” said agency spokeswoman Sheila Stainback.
The Internet effort came to light Friday when the agency announced it was seeking proposals for consulting services to “enhance the image of NYCHA in the minds of” residents, the press and government officials responsible for the authority’s budget.
Stainback said the effort is not new. The authority has for the past year been working with Search Impact Consulting, whose CEO, Rebecca Bilbao, touts herself online as an expert in “reputation management” and crisis communications.
Bilbao declined to discuss her work for the authority, and referred questions back to agency officials.
In response to questions from The Post, Stainback said, “Those seeking out information should not need to wade through page after page of Google search results to find the answers to their questions.”
She also said the authority is doing nothing different than companies in the private sector, although the authority is a government agency without competition.
The authority has an annual deficit of about $50 million. Its 2012 budget is more than $3 billion.
The agency has a fully staffed p.r. department, but, Stainback said, its staff does not have the expertise for the online project.
While spending its limited cash on public relations might be questionable, there is no doubt the authority gets bad press.
In recent weeks, the agency has come under fire for refusing to release a $10 million consultant’s report detailing problems there. And tenants have criticized it for the conditions of some of its buildings.
A Google search yesterday using the term “New York City Housing Authority” showed that the online p.r. effort is having only limited results.
On the first page of links, nine positive results showed up, including the agency’s own Web site. News stories that raise questions about what’s going on at the authority started appearing with the 10th entry and continued to appear on the following pages.