A former manager of a nonprofit organization that uses millions of dollars of public funding to promote electric bikes is accusing the organization's founder of falsifying participant data and using public funds to steer business to his own for-profit company with a similar name.
The allegations are contained in two lawsuits filed this week by Rodrigo Rodriguez, who was hired in 2022 to work for Pedal Ahead, a nonprofit e-bike project funded by the San Diego Association of Governments and the California Air Resources Board.
“Rodriguez witnessed wasteful, fraudulent and abusive conduct by Pedal Ahead's owner and CEO, Edward Clancy (“Clancy”), in connection with the manner in which Pedal Ahead performed its SANDAG and CARB contracts,” one of the complaints states.
The legal claims, which are required before plaintiffs can file a lawsuit against a public agency, were filed late Monday. The plaintiffs named SANDAG and said the nonprofit was acting on their behalf.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday that Pedal Ahead has been the subject of multiple investigations, including a criminal investigation opened by the California Department of Justice earlier this year.
Rodriguez said he was hired as the CEO of Pedal Ahead to manage the program, a publicly funded initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to ditch their cars and ride electric bikes.
The complaint, filed against the regional planning agency known as SANDAG and the state Department of Aviation, accuses Clancy of directing Rodriguez to inflate the number of people signing up for the pilot, the number of bikes operated and the miles those people drove.
SANDAG officials said they don't comment publicly on legal disputes. CARB did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. Neither complaint accuses anyone from either agency of wrongdoing.
Clancy did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the allegations.
Rodriguez claims he was working as an agent for both government agencies when he stopped receiving his pay after April 2023, and the lawsuit seeks tens of thousands of dollars in back pay, as well as attorneys' fees.
Rodriguez said he is owed just over $40,000 for SANDAG's work with Pedal Ahead and about $58,000 for his efforts on behalf of the state.
The allegations allege that Clancy not only misreported data to both SANDAG and CARB, which allocated more than $30 million to the nonprofit organization founded in 2020, but also reissued dozens of bikes to participants who did not meet program goals, such as riding 100 miles per month.
According to the lawsuit, Clancy made it appear that more riders were enrolled in the program than actually participated by gifting the same bikes to multiple people.
The complaint also alleges the nonprofit avoided costs such as geolocation devices and hindered the assault investigation.
“SANDAG was billed for GPS tracking, but the funds were not used for the stated purpose,” one claim states.
“GPS information was not immediately available at the time the victim was sexually assaulted because GPS subscriptions had not been purchased for the motorcycles involved,” the records add. “Up to 80 percent of GPS subscriptions were not obtained.”
Rodriguez said that while he worked for both government agencies, Clancy sent him to numerous sales presentations for Clancy's for-profit company, Pedal Ahead Plus.
Clancy hired former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher as a sales rep for Pedal Ahead Plus to help secure commercial contracts, the lawsuit said. Rodriguez said he was instructed to advise Fletcher on the details of a publicly funded e-bike program.
“Clancy repeatedly instructed Rodriguez to speak to Nathan Fletcher, who worked as a salesman for a commercial business (Pedal Ahead Plus) throughout the Los Angeles area,” the lawsuit states.
Fletcher said he never worked as a salesman for Pedal Ahead Plus.
“I have no knowledge of this individual's claims, but the statements made about me are false. I have never been employed by or received compensation from Pedal Ahead Plus and only provided informal advice to a friend with a business idea,” Fletcher said in a text message on Tuesday.
“Four years ago, I worked with several other organizations to help secure funding to start the nonprofit Pedal Ahead, but we had no involvement in any of the funding from CARB or SANDAG,” he said.
Records show Fletcher donated tens of thousands of dollars to Pedal Ahead while he was chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and also served on the state Air Commission until he was replaced by Supervisor Nora Vargas in early 2022.
The former county supervisor resigned from office in May 2023, about six weeks after he was accused of sexual harassment and assault in a civil lawsuit.
Fletcher acknowledged that he had an inappropriate relationship with a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation System, where he served as board chair, but strongly denied the assault and harassment allegations. Earlier this year, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the accuser, Grecia Figueroa.
Fletcher isn't the only prominent San Diego figure mentioned in the allegations.
Business leader Phil Blair worked closely with Clancy, according to the documents.
Manpower, a job-training and workforce provider that Blair co-founded several years ago with business partner Mel Katz, provided payroll and other human resources services to Pedal Ahead.
According to the lawsuit, Blair accompanied Clancy and Rodriguez to Northern California to recruit new customers for the commercial arm of their electric bike business.
“During the trip, Rodriguez heard Clancy ask Blair to loan him funds to hire Nathan Fletcher as a salesman for a for-profit company (Pedal Ahead Plus),” the SANDAG complaint states.
Before Clancy and Blair planned a trip to Europe, the Pedal Ahead founder is alleged to have asked Rodriguez to arrange for a female escort for the pair while they were abroad.
“Clancy instructed Rodriguez to find a woman in Amsterdam to coincide with a trip to Amsterdam with Phil Blair and Ed Clancy,” the document states. “Text messages attest to this fact.”
Blair said he had no knowledge of the allegations. He said the company put Rodriguez on paid administrative leave as soon as he raised concerns about Pedal Ahead, and extended that leave multiple times.
“After Mr. Rodriguez indicated he did not want to return to his job at Pedal Ahead, Manpower offered to help him find work with another Manpower client and also offered to review his resume and provide interview guidance if Mr. Rodriguez wanted to find work on his own,” said Blair, who writes a column for the Union-Tribune's business section.
“We remain open to offers for Mr. Rodriguez,” he said.
The Union-Tribune reported Sunday that Rider Safety Visibility, the legal name of the nonprofit organization Clancy founded four years ago, is the subject of multiple investigations.
Pedal Ahead is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the state Department of Justice as well as an internal investigation by Air Resources Board officials, according to records obtained by the Union-Tribune.
Pedal Ahead has so far received just $1 million of the $31 million allocated for e-bikes, according to the state, but the group's public tax returns show a significant drop in revenue for 2023, and Clancy said he plans to amend the returns.
Meanwhile, SANDAG ended its review after four months, telling Clancy in a letter last Thursday that it would end the final months of the two-year pilot program with payments of $3,600 per month.
Clancy has a background in bicycle racing and political consulting, including helping to elect Bob Filner as San Diego mayor 12 years ago.
Clancy also installed wiretaps on Filner and former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis during the FBI's investigation into them for accepting political contributions from Mexican businessmen who are not legally allowed to donate to U.S. political campaigns.
