Filner campaign manager was informant

The former campaign manager for ex-San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is one of two confidential witnesses who cooperated with federal investigators in a probe into illegal campaign contributions, U-T Watchdog has learned.

Ed Clancy, 45, is the person identified in a federal complaint filed last month as “Confidential Informant #1,” sources with knowledge of the probe confirmed. They did not want to be identified because of the ongoing campaign corruption investigation.

Clancy went on to serve as the manager of bicycle programs in Filner’s short-lived istration at a salary of $65,000 per year. Clancy worked from January 2013 through Filner’s departure in August amid accusations that the mayor sexually harassed numerous women.

Clancy has not responded to repeated messages left on his cellphone and the phone for his consulting business over the past two weeks, nor to an email request. A reporter who visited his La Jolla home was told by a woman there that Clancy was not available.

A federal complaint outlining the case filed Jan. 21 describes the role the informant played in the investigation, including at least three secretly recorded conversations with three people who have been charged by federal prosecutors. It also says he has been granted “qualified immunity” for his cooperation.

The identity of a second informant, mentioned once in the complaint, has not been confirmed.

The federal probe centers on how $500,000 in contributions from Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura was funneled into San Diego campaigns in 2012 and 2013.

Prosecutors have charged lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes, political consultant Ravneet Singh and former San Diego police detective Ernie Encinas with conspiracy to hide the source of the money. It’s against federal law for a foreign national to contribute to political campaigns.

The money went to campaign for Filner and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis as well as into two Democratic political committees.

Clancy’s role appears to have begun in October 2012 when Singh, Encinas and Cortes ed him when he was working on Filner’s campaign. The trio proposed funding social media spending on behalf of the candidate and said the expenses for doing so would be “taken care of.”

The complaint said Clancy agreed to this, though knowing “it would not be reported on any public filings, in contravention of the law.”

A short time later some $190,000 went from Azano’s Mexican company to Singh’s company, which was never reported on disclosure forms and for which the campaign was never invoiced, federal documents say. Filner was elected in November 2012.

In January 2013, Clancy assumed his new job with the city as Filner’s bicycle program manager. Filner bragged to bicycle advocates, “One of my first hires was — I call him the bike czar, he calls himself the bike guy. Ed Clancy is working as part of the city’s bike program.”

An avid cyclist who has a consulting business and participates in multi-day rides for charity, Clancy was described by one person who interacted with him during his City Hall tenure as professional and effective promoting a more bike-friendly city.

Sam Ollinger of the advocacy group BikeSD said Clancy played a key role in making safer a section of Montezuma Road that had been the site of one fatal bike-car collision and other injuries.

“He heard we had been pushing for changes there, and he fast-tracked it,” she said.

The only time Clancy appeared on Filner’s calendar, obtained under the California Public Records Act, was a meeting at the mayor’s office on Feb. 4, 2013.

Also attending were Aimee Remanick, who works for political consultant Tom Shepard, and Kelli Maruccia, whose firm, KM Strategies, has been a fundraiser for Filner, Dumanis and others.

Clancy was the main organizer behind CicloSDias, a promotional cycling event that played a small role in one of the many scandals to plague the Filner istration.

Filner strong-armed a developer into giving the city $100,000 for two of the mayor’s favored causes — the bike event and a veterans’ memorial in Ocean Beach. Filner returned the money after questions were raised about the propriety of the transaction.

Federal investigators interviewed people at City Hall about the developer’s contribution last summer, but that investigation did not appear to lead anywhere.

On Aug. 1, 2013, about a week before CicloSDias, Encinas called Clancy, according to the federal documents.

Clancy was still working for the city, but the Filner istration was disintegrating and replacement mayoral candidates were jockeying for position. Clancy would become a er of former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for mayor.

During the phone call, Encinas asked Clancy if Fletcher would be running for mayor and if he would be interested in a “foreign investment.” The call was recorded, likely by an FBI wiretap.

The complaint quotes portions of Clancy’s response, including saying that the campaign financing “has got to be clean” and that “(stuff) still hasn’t come out from the last election” and that Fletcher is “going to be squeaky clean.”

At the time of the recorded telephone call, Clancy appears not to have been cooperating with the investigation. Afterwards, he either went to the FBI, or agents came to him.

On Aug. 28, in a meeting the federal document said was a ruse, Clancy met with Encinas and Cortes at a downtown hotel. The meeting was surreptitiously recorded on video and audio, according to the complaint. Encinas and Cortes confirmed that Azano was a Mexican citizen and the source of money paid to Singh for working on Filner’s campaign.

At another recorded meeting with Clancy on Sept. 10, Encinas again described how the source for contributions could be hidden, according to the complaint. A final meeting on Sept. 18, again about surreptitiously funding Fletcher’s campaign, Encinas said that he wanted the next mayor to get rid of San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, the complaint says.

On Oct. 1, Clancy rode with Fletcher in a campaign event promoting a bicycle-friendly San Diego.

The Fletcher campaign says Clancy never held any official role, and the federal documents say Fletcher had no knowledge of the clandestine meetings.