Execs on NYC’s Roosevelt Island spent $170K in taxpayer cash to launch anti-tourist smear campaign: probe
Roosevelt Island officials launched a smear campaign to blame tourists — and not mismanagement — for repeated problems with the island’s famed Tramway, a scathing state report reveals.
Well-paid former members of the Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation paid a PR firm nearly $170,000 in taxpayer dollars to manipulate local media outlets and plant posts online claiming a glut of visitors were behind the mishaps, the state Office of the Inspector General said in the 23-page report.
In fact, it was ROIC mismanagement, faulty equipment and lackluster service that were primarily responsible for a series of problems with the popular 59th Street tram over the East River — issues allegedly buried by the public relations firm Status Labs.
“Status Labs also published articles on platforms designed specifically to host content meant to game [Google] search algorithms,” the state report said.
“If a user’s content does not appear ‘on the first few pages of results,’ that content ‘may as well not exist,’” it said, quoting Google’s search engine optimization, or SEO starter guide.
While the report acknowledged that some service problems could be blamed on the mass of tourists who flock to the tram for its scenic views, it noted that residents and blogs also raised hackles over media coverage that solely slammed the visitors and ignored signs of poor management.
Between October 2022 and October 2023, Status Labs planted 17 positive articles about top RIOC executives on various blogs, according to the report.
RIOC officials edited and reviewed articles that Status Labs had written about them, and even organized headshots for the puff pieces — all during work hours, investigators found.
Four former RIOC bigwigs are cited for masterminding the misleading campaign, led by ex-CEO Shelton Haynes, the highest paid member of the corporation until he left last year.
According to govsalaries.com, Haynes was paid $246,741 last year, followed by then vice president and General Counsel Gretchen Robinson, who was paid $209,842.
Two other RIOC execs who were singled out — Assistant Vice President of Administration Tajuna Sharpe and Assistant Vice President of Communications AKeem Jamal — were paid $185,711 and $120,414, respectively, govsalaries reported.
One of the execs received a monthly progress report from Status Labs as the contract manager. One such report detailed how the executive board suppressed negative content from Google pages that specifically contained members’ first and last names, investigators said.
The Roosevelt Island Daily News closely reported on the tram issues and management aside from tourist crowding, tagging 419 articles on its website under “RIOC negligence.”
The Roosevelt Islander, another local newspaper that has covered the RIOC, was also mentioned in the report as a target of the SEO manipulation campaign.
“This wasn’t hard to spot. SEO manipulation has fingerprints. We follow all public meetings, and it didn’t take much to connect the dots. It’s good to now have confirmation and added detail, but it’s not surprising,” said Theo Gobblevelt, editor at the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse.
Rick O’Conor, publisher at the Roosevelt Islander, called the report’s findings “extremely troubling,” but added, “In my opinion, the current RIOC administration has greatly improved communications with the local media and public. It’s like night and day.”
Status Labs — which says its mission is “to help our clients take and maintain control of their digital identity and look their best online,” according to its website — didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Bryant Daniels, RIOC’s director of communications and community affairs, twice declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
According to financial filings on the RIOC website, the corporation had $36.5 million in revenues in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2024, and $37.3 million in expenses, not including depreciation.
Since the four RIOC executives named in the report are no longer employed and considering that Status Labs’ contract was not renewed, there is no “immediate danger of continued misuse of state resources,” the report found.
But the former executive staff may have violated New York state’s Public Officers Law Code of Ethics, according to the report. A state ethics commission is reviewing the inspector general’s report for further action.
The next RIOC meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. April 10, was canceled, according to the firm’s website.
An explanation for the cancellation was not included in the notice.
Watchdog and state Inspector General Lucy Lang, who leads New York state in the mission to investigate “allegations of corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest,” led the report. She called these actions “improper, self-serving” and “contrary to public policy.”
Local newspapers and residents have long cited criticism of the RIOC. In March 2022, an anonymous letter from RIOC employees claimed its executives have “a long history of corruption, ethics scandals and a culture of harassment, bullying, and favoritism due to pandering.”
By
Posts
