In November, a fundraising solicitation for a proposed bike-share program in Broome County arrived in Pipe Dream’s inbox, which several other local businesses received. The email listed two local officials as “current supporters” of the initiative: State Sen. Lea Webb ‘04 and Broome County Executive Jason Garnar ‘99.

While this article was intended to provide an overview of the program and its implementation, it developed into a monthslong investigation after interviews with its founder and the Broome County executive’s office cast doubt on several of the claims in the initial solicitation and communications with Pipe Dream.

“I am introducing an exciting opportunity for your business to contribute to a transformative initiative in our community — BC Bike, a public bike share program launching in Broome County in spring 2025, operated by Central Mobility, a local nonprofit organization based in Binghamton,” the November email read.

It was signed by Steven Carter, a local businessman who also operates a photography studio. The bike-share program was pitched as a service where users could temporarily rent a bike from various docking stations, similar to Citi Bike in New York City or the University’s Koloni program.

In a Dec. 3 interview, Carter said he planned for the program to launch in March. The program, however, had not yet been approved by the county as of February, according to Colleen Wagner, the county’s deputy executive for human services. Garnar’s office also denied supporting the program.

Wagner added that starting the bike-share program in March would not be possible because the county “would never be able to just start a program with an individual without putting it out to the RFP process,” referring to a request for proposal bidding. She said a bike-share company named Tandem Mobility responded to the county’s e-bike and e-scooter pilot program request for proposal in September 2024, while Central Mobility did not. The county decided not to pursue the pilot program due to its high costs.

“He has reached out to several entities, indicating that the county executive has told him to reach out to them,” Wagner said in a Dec. 3 interview. “He’s never met with the county executive.”

The Roberson Museum told Pipe Dream on Feb. 7 that it spoke with Carter, and while it did not choose to establish a relationship with his bike-share initiative, “We believe a community bike share program could be a valuable asset once authorized by the appropriate municipalities.” The Phelps Mansion Museum said it “decided to not be involved with” BC Bikeshare, as “there seemed to be a lot of unknowns about this program.” The Ross Park Zoo also told Pipe Dream on Feb. 25 that it was “not involved with BC Bikes.”

Wagner later wrote that, as of Feb. 11, Carter has only met with Brenda Gowe, the director of Broome County Parks, Recreation and Youth Services, and has not received approval from the county or spoken with Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham.

“The BCBikes program is a local issue, not a state issue,” a representative from Webb’s office wrote in an email in response to repeated requests for comment on whether Webb supported the program.

Carter said that the emails requesting sponsors were sent due to a hack into his customer-management software, adding that because the email signature is different from the one he typically uses, he could not have sent them. Instead, he said, “There is a personal life matter that happened, and the person decided to log into my account.”

Central Mobility’s pitch deck, which was linked in the fundraising solicitation to local businesses, claimed that “each BC Bikeshare bike generates up to 5,800 impressions per trip” and that their “mobile app generates 75,000 impressions/year.” Pipe Dream was unable to find a mobile app from BC Bikeshare.

Carter said the program is owned by Central Mobility, a company he founded that was in the process of gaining 501(c)3 nonprofit status. However, before a corporation can register as a nonprofit with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, it must first be incorporated. As of publication, there is no registered corporation or limited liability company named “Central Mobility” in New York state.

According to the deck, Carter founded Central Mobility last year to “transform the local community by providing a high-quality, convenient, and affordable bicycle transit system that will connect people to more places.”

While Carter told Pipe Dream that Garnar and Webb had asked him to contact Binghamton University students to amass support for the program, he later said he was referring not to any local officials but to two friends who are local entrepreneurs.

“Are the local politicians aware of it?” Carter said during the Dec. 3 interview, referring to the bike-share program. “Yes, they are. Have we had any support from them? No, we have not.”

When asked to describe the circumstances around the alleged hack, Carter ended the interview, claiming his on-the-record conversation was not meant to be heard by the general public. Hours later, Carter wrote in an email that he was “currently at the office of the president with my attorney looking for your supervisor.”

“This one [is] not adding up and I’m not sure why we would get involved in that anyhow,” a University spokesperson wrote when asked about Carter’s claim.

Pipe Dream followed up with Carter in April, and he declined to comment on any of the allegations by local officials or businesses.