People ride an e-bike on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, going 14 mph, which is over the posted speed limit of 8 mph. In Hermosa Beach, it’s against city code to use electric power on the Strand, but many e-bike riders do so anyway. A former manager at a nonprofit that promotes electric bikes with millions of dollars in public funding is accusing the organization’s founder of falsifying participation data and using public money to direct business to his own for-profit company with a similar name.
Rodriguez said he was hired by the Pedal Ahead chief executive to manage the program, a publicly funded effort aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to give up cars in favor of electric bicycles. According to the claims, in addition to misreporting data to both SANDAG and CARB, which earmarked more than $30 million to the nonprofit created in 2020, Clancy reissued dozens of bikes to participants who did not meet program objectives such as riding 100 miles per month.
“When a participant was sexually assaulted, the GPS information was not available immediately because the GPS subscription for the bike involved had not been purchased,” the record added. “Up to 80 percent of the GPS subscriptions were not obtained.” “Four years ago I joined with several other groups in helping secure funding for the launch of the nonprofit Pedal Ahead but I had no role in the CARB or SANDAG funding,” he said.
Manpower, the job-training and workforce company Blair co-founded years ago with business partner Mel Katz, provided payroll and other human-resources services to Pedal Ahead. “Clancy directed Mr. Rodriguez to locate women in Amsterdam to coincide with Phil Blair and Ed Clancy’s trip to Amsterdam,” the documents say. “Text messages evidence this fact.”