‘Like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert’: State officials pledge improvements to botched e-bike signups

State officials working to make amends for botched rollouts of a long-delayed electric-bike program have introduced new vendors to manage the next application period, and they expect to replace the San Diego nonprofit administering the program later this year.

The California Air Resources Board, which has been developing the $31 million E-Bike Incentive Project for years, announced the changes last week, days ahead of its latest planned signups this coming Thursday.

Officials said the air board and Pedal Ahead, the troubled San Diego nonprofit selected to manage the e-bike effort, have retained Akamai Technologies and Queue-it to manage the May 29 online enrollment.

“Both firms are industry leaders in their fields and work with some of the world’s largest companies to securely manage large volumes of data and traffic and will ensure a safe and reliable customer experience,” the agency said in a statement.

The announcement follows two problematic efforts to offer vouchers worth up to $2,000 to California residents who want to buy electric bicycles — both marred by technological issues and complaints from would-be applicants.

In December, the California E-Bike Incentive Project website shut out tens of thousands of people as they tried to apply for grants. The April offering was even worse, shutting down entirely under what officials later said was a security threat.

The Air Resources Board has apologized for its handling of the applications and pledged to do better.

“We had over 150,000 people trying to get into the program, and we only have 1,000 vouchers,” spokesperson Lisa Macumber told reporters during a press briefing last week. “We understand their (would-be applicants’) frustration completely.

“It’s challenging,” she said. “It’s like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.”

The e-bike incentives were designed to promote clean-energy alternatives to driving by subsidizing the bicycles for income-eligible applicants.

Air Resources Board officials selected Pedal Ahead as its program manager after the San Diego nonprofit operated a similar program for the regional planning agency San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG.

Pedal Ahead was later accused of falsifying records and bungling required documentation. SANDAG took back control of the project but not before Pedal Ahead was chosen as the state project manager.

The nonprofit’s founder is Edward Clancy, a former political consultant who also served more than a decade ago as an informant for the FBI.

He was forced out of the tax-exempt organization after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Pedal Ahead was the subject of multiple investigations.

The Air Resources Board has declined to comment on its regulatory investigation; the state Department of Justice similarly declined to comment on its review, which records show was a criminal probe.

Clancy and Pedal Ahead, which collected more than $2 million in state funding, have not responded to the Union-Tribune’s questions since last year.

Macumber said last week that the Air Resources Board expects to re-bid its contract for managing the state e-bike program sometime this summer. She said the re-bidding was due to the agency’s routine practice of soliciting new bids every few years.

“We typically run new third-party administrators every three years or so,” Macumber said.

The state plans to award up to 1,000 more vouchers Thursday. The air board said the third and final round of subsidies will be distributed next year, in a single online giveaway of some 9,000 vouchers.

For more information about the California E-Bike Incentive Program or to apply for a chance at a state grant, visit www.ebikeincentives.org.