The $5M payout to the A3 Foundation won’t happen. Who gets the money instead?
The $5 million payout to a politically connected charity that Miami-Dade commissioners approved last month already looked unlikely to happen after the county’s mayor promised to not sign a parks contract with the required funding stream for the A3 Foundation.
Legislation released this week shows the money is still on track to go to a charity over the next two decades – but now it’s the long-established Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade, the fundraising arm of the county’s parks system.
The legislation, requested by the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and sponsored by Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, is up for a vote on Sept. 3.
It seeks to reverse the requirement for yearly payments of $250,000 to the A3 Foundation that were part of a management contract at Tropical Park that a Doral events company, Loud and Live, secured in a commission vote on July 16.
The Miami Herald published a story three days later questioning how a charity formed in 2023 with no public footprint of philanthropic work had secured the money – along with a $950,000 allocation in the Florida budget that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law weeks earlier.
The article, and follow-up Herald stories, drew the first public scrutiny to A3, a foundation with a listed headquarters in a West Miami townhouse and a president in Francisco Petrirena, who is also the full-time chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega.
Public records showed Rodriguez and his office used A3 as the clearinghouse for county dollars allocated to CountryFest, a yearly rodeo festival Rodriguez hosts in his district at Tropical Park.
The required payments to A3 through the Loud and Live contract would have meant a regular revenue stream for the foundation – likely giving CountryFest a new source of funds as Levine Cava seeks passage of a budget with cuts in the Parks Department, social services and charity grants.
It’s not known what the Parks Foundation would do with the money that it would receive from Loud and Live under the contract revision up for a vote on Sept. 3. The foundation is an independent non-profit whose volunteer president is Caroline O’Connor, president of business operations for the Miami Marlins. The Parks Foundation’s website says its dollars underwrite county swimming and youth programs within the parks system, among other initiatives.
Christina White, the county’s Parks director, said foundation funding backs up programs with nearly 7,000 participants a year, and also assists Miami-Dade’s tree-planting efforts and with protecting sea turtles along county beaches.
The Parks Foundation’s 2023 tax returns, the most recent that are publicly available, suggest the Loud and Live payment would mean a substantial financial boost for the non-profit. The foundation reported $575,000 in donations in 2023. Another $250,000 would have meant a nearly 50% increase in funding.
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 3:52 PM.