The founder of the San Diego nonprofit chosen by local and state officials to oversee millions of dollars in public spending on electric bikes is no longer running the organization, but no one will say why.
Edward Clancy, the former political consultant who established Pedal Ahead and secured major contracts with the San Diego Association of Governments and the California Air Resources Board, is no longer involved with the California E-Bike Incentive Project, state officials said.
Clancy earlier this year was investigated by the regional planning agency known as SANDAG for his handling of a smaller e-bike program established several years ago.
Both the state and SANDAG efforts involved providing free or subsidized electric bikes to lower-income residents as a way to fight climate change by reducing people’s reliance on cars.
Under Clancy’s leadership, the local program was suspended and then taken in-house by SANDAG after officials there grew concerned about Pedal Ahead’s spending and the accuracy of its data.
Pedal Ahead’s work for SANDAG nonetheless led California officials to select the San Diego nonprofit to operate the broader statewide e-bike program. It was awarded up to $10 million to distribute vouchers worth up to $2,000 each to people who want to buy the bicycles.
Now the Air Resources Board has confirmed that Clancy is no longer involved with the California E-Bike Incentive Project. But the agency spokesperson repeatedly declined to specify why the leadership change was made.
“The current project lead and contact for Pedal Ahead is Scott Anderson,” air board spokesperson Lys Mendez said by email.
Clancy and Anderson also declined to discuss the switch. Clancy did not respond to multiple interview requests; Anderson said in a text message that all questions about the Pedal Ahead e-bike program should be directed to the state.
The management of Pedal Ahead is important because the nonprofit was the subject of a criminal investigation earlier this year by the California Department of Justice and a civil probe by the Air Resources Board, according to records obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Clancy denied any wrongdoing in a June interview and said he was fully cooperating with the state investigations. SANDAG announced at the same time that it had taken back control of its e-bike program and ended its relationship with Clancy and Pedal Ahead.
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on its investigation.
Meanwhile, the California E-Bike Incentive Program rollout was delayed for nearly one year, raising questions across the cycling community.
Under Pedal Ahead’s direction, the program finally began accepting online applications for the vouchers on Wednesday night, almost a year after the previously scheduled opening. But the application window closed within minutes, and thousands of people were shut out of the process.
According to the Air Resources Board, the initial application period unfolded as expected.
“We have received feedback on the website and process, and our team was monitoring the launch the entire time,” Mendez said. “There were no technical issues with the website, and any inability to get through was a result of the demand.”
Critics, who have been waiting more than three years for the e-bike subsidies to be made available as lawmakers planned, called the application process a mess.
“CARB managed this rollout knowing it was going to fail,” said Ted Rogers, a cycling advocate and editor of the BikingInLA.com blog. “They knew the demand would be far greater than the amount of money they are releasing — not the amount of money they have on hand.”
According to Mendez, the air board has directed e-bike funding to Pedal Ahead only as the project has moved forward. Pedal Ahead has collected more than half of the $10 million earmarked to date from the $30 million-plus allocated to the effort by the state Legislature.
“Funds are released to Pedal Ahead on an as-needed basis based on project milestones and performance,” she said.
The Air Resources Board has not said when more applications — and e-bike subsidies — will be made available.
The state’s e-bike program operator has an unusual history.
Clancy initially set up Rider Safety Visibility as a limited liability company in 2018. But public records show the entity was suspended by the Secretary of State’s Office before being declared inactive in 2021. The Franchise Tax Board issued its own suspension in 2022.
The tax-exempt organization called Rider Safety Visibility was established in 2020.
In March 2022, Clancy established Pedal Ahead Utah, another limited liability company based out of a Park City condominium, Utah state records show. The business was properly renewed in June and is listed as currently active.
By June 2022, Clancy changed the name of the tax-exempt Rider Safety Visibility to Pedal Ahead — and also opened a separate for-profit entity called Pedal Ahead LLC. The Secretary of State’s Office now lists that company as inactive.
Meanwhile, in federal tax filings, Pedal Ahead uses its original name, Rider Safety Visibility.
But revenue and spending statements Clancy has completed under the penalty of perjury contain conflicting information.
He provided the Union-Tribune a copy of his 2023 tax filing in June, for example, a document that reported $162,000 in income and more than $232,000 in spending. The charity closed out the year with $101,000 in negative assets, the record said.
Asked about those discrepancies, Clancy said there were other, non-reported assets.
“Funding is in a money market account, per contract requirement to yield interest that goes back into the program,” he said by email. “To date, there is an additional approximate $34,000 earned. There will be an additional filing this year.”
Two weeks later, he told the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that Rider Safety Visibility had collected more than $2.2 million in 2023 revenue. The same filing showed Clancy collected $33,000 in salary that year. The board of directors had three members, including Clancy.
According to the state Department of Justice, which regulates tax-exempt entities in California, Rider Safety Visibility has not completed required reporting standards.
The status could be due to the business failing to renew its annual registration by May as required or because Clancy filed income records with the state that differ from what he reported to the IRS.
Even so, Mendez said Pedal Ahead remains in good standing as far as the Air Resources Board is concerned.
“The entity did need to renew its registration with the Franchise Tax Board earlier this year and now has done so,” Mendez told the Union-Tribune when asked about the discrepancies.
State officials have never responded to claims filed against both SANDAG and the Air Resources Board earlier this year by a former Pedal Ahead employee who accused Clancy of falsifying data he provided to both government agencies.
Rodrigo Rodriguez worked for Clancy at Pedal Ahead working to implement the SANDAG and CARB programs but said he was often diverted from those efforts to work on Clancy’s for-profit entities. He said he was owed some $40,000 in back pay.
“Mr. Rodriguez witnessed waste, fraud and abuse consisting of actions by Edward Clancy, the owner and chief executive officer of Pedal Ahead in connection with how Pedal Ahead performed the SANDAG and CARB contracts,” one of the two claims stated.
Such legal demands are generally required before a plaintiff can sue a government agency. It was not immediately clear whether the claims had been formally rejected.
Clancy denied the allegation that he had misreported program data to local and state officials.
Before establishing Rider Safety Visibility, Clancy worked as a political consultant advising former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who was forced from office in a sexual-harassment scandal in 2013.
He also wore a wire for the FBI when it was investigating Filner and former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis for illegally accepting political contributions from a Mexican business tycoon.