The former field manager for a San Diego nonprofit that was awarded more than $10 million to run a state electric-bicycle program has sued the organization, saying he was wrongly fired after reporting fraud and abuse.
In the San Diego Superior Court lawsuit filed this week, plaintiff Rodrigo Rodriguez said he was terminated from his job at Pedal Ahead after disclosing what he said were violations of terms of the California Air Resources Board grant.
The wrongful-termination case also names the workforce company Manpower as a defendant, because it was acting as Rodriguez’s employer of record on behalf of Pedal Ahead.
“Defendants removed plaintiff from the workplace after he reported the violations, essentially removing him physically and preventing him from performing the professional work for which he was hired to do,” the lawsuit says.
In his suit, Rodriguez said he was hired at Pedal Ahead in April 2023 to promote the e-bike program to potential participants.
By early last year, after witnessing discrimination and misuse of public funds, Rodriguez said he began reporting his findings to the government funders. He was placed on leave a few months later and subsequently terminated, his lawsuit alleges.
Among other allegations, the complaint says Rodriguez was directed to discriminate against minority groups, in part by steering two nonprofits that largely serve Black people to a for-profit e-bike company that was also created by the Pedal Ahead founder.
Both the for-profit and nonprofit businesses were founded by Edward Clancy, a businessman and former political consultant who once worked as an FBI informant. Officials from Pedal Ahead and Manpower did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last year that the Pedal Ahead nonprofit was the subject of multiple government investigations, including a criminal probe into its spending and reporting practices by the California Department of Justice.
The tax-exempt organization also was investigated by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, for its handling of some $440,000 for a local e-bike program before the regional planning agency last year took over administration of that effort.
Electric bikes are a key component of local and state efforts to curb climate change by getting people out of cars that rely on internal-combustion engines.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the typical gas- or diesel-powered vehicle emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the primary causes of increasing global temperatures, researchers say.
Both the state and local e-bike programs involve providing free and subsidized bicycles.
SANDAG entered a contract with Pedal Ahead nearly four years ago to manage a pilot project to promote e-bikes. Rodriguez had accused Clancy of falsifying participation data and used public funds to boost his for-profit business before SANDAG reclaimed administration of the program.
In an interview last June, Clancy denied the allegations and said he was cooperating with both state and local investigators.
He subsequently has not responded to repeated requests for comment about the e-bike programs or his for-profit enterprises.
In 2022, based largely on its record in San Diego, Pedal Ahead was selected to manage a $10 million state Air Resources Board e-bike program.
But according to Rodriguez’s lawsuit, Clancy directed him to avoid promoting the state grants in two Black communities in Northern California, even though terms of the state program prohibited discrimination based on race.
“In June 2023, Pedal Ahead CEO Ed Clancy told (the) plaintiff to stay away from all Black communities in the Bay Area,” the legal complaint states. “Mr. Clancy told Plaintiff to ‘push the Black communities to the side and focus on his (Ed Clancy’s) for-profit journey and political favors for other locations’.”
The California Air Resources Board did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations in the Rodriguez legal complaint.
Despite the millions of dollars earmarked for the program, the California E-Bike Incentive Project has been delayed for years. It finally began accepting applications on Dec. 18, but critics noted that the online process closed within minutes and shut out thousands of people.
“CARB managed this rollout knowing it was going to fail,” Ted Rogers, a cycling advocate and editor of the BikingInLA.com blog, told the Union-Tribune afterward.
A spokesperson for the air resources board said the December event unfolded as planned.
“There were no technical issues with the website, and any inability to get through was a result of the demand,” spokesperson Lys Mendez said at the time.
The state agency has repeatedly declined to comment on the investigations into Pedal Ahead or explain the delays implementing the program. Mendez did say Clancy is no longer the project lead or the state’s contact person at Pedal Ahead.
The California E-Bike Incentive Project is no longer accepting applications for the grant program, according to its website.
“We will be announcing additional application windows in early 2025,” it states.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Loren Freestone. The defendants have yet to respond to the initial complaint. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for July 25.
