County commissioners reverse course on A3 Foundation payments in Parks contract

A charity that came under scrutiny this summer will not receive a $5 million payout through a Miami-Dade contract, as originally planned. Instead, the money will be going to the fundraising arm of the county’s parks system.

County commissioners on Wednesday approved a change to a Parks Department contract that previously was set to pay $250,000 a year over two decades to the A3 Foundation. The politically connected nonprofit has been the subject of Miami Herald articles questioning how it secured significant amounts of money from Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida since its founding in late 2023.

Legislation approved Wednesday switches the recipient of the money to the Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade, which raises money for park activities and programs.

The $250,000 yearly payment will come from Loud and Live, a Doral events company that in July won a 20-year management contract to run events at the county’s Tropical Park. The contract required Loud and Live to pay $250,000 a year to a charity, and Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, whose district includes Tropical Park, selected the A3 Foundation to receive the private dollars.

Rodriguez also sponsored the item making the switch to the Parks Foundation — legislation that was requested by the Parks Department. The legislation passed without discussion, with one commissioner voting no without comment: Eileen Higgins.

The original July 16 approval of the Loud and Live contract prompted the first Herald article on A3, a nonprofit with headquarters listed in a West Miami townhouse and a website with no contact information and blank entries under a “Projects” page. The head of the foundation is Francisco Petrirena, whose full-time job is chief of staff to City Manager Art Noriega.

Commissioners approved the Loud and Live contract that included the required payments to the A3 Foundation just weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a Florida budget with another $950,000 for the charity. Almost half of that came from funds controlled by Florida House Speaker Danny Perez, a Miami Republican who is friends with Petrirena.

Despite no public record of philanthropy, the charity was also allocated more than $1 million from Miami-Dade over the last two years. The money was earmarked for CountryFest, the annual rodeo event Rodriguez hosts at Tropical Park.

County records show Rodriguez’s District 10 staff used the A3 Foundation as the intermediary for Miami-Dade dollars used to pay CountryFest vendors, including Loud and Live.

Herald reporting has accounted for nearly $880,000 of the $1.19 million allocated to A3 to put on CountryFest.

That leaves roughly $315,000 in Miami-Dade dollars allocated to the A3 Foundation over the last two years but not accounted for in either the CountryFest invoices obtained by the Herald through records requests with Miami-Dade or in the $615,000 that Loud and Live told the Herald it was paid by A3 for its production work for the events in 2024 and 2025.

The amount of dollars not matched to known expenses would be higher, but the final county payment issued to A3 — a July 8 check for $200,000 — was returned anonymously last month to the county’s budget office, according to David Clodfelter, budget director under Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Petrirena has not responded to questions about how the charity spent its Miami-Dade dollars. Neither has Rodriguez.

A3 lawyer John Priovolos was not available for comment on Wednesday. He issued a statement to the Herald on July 29 defending the charity.

“Since its inception, A3 has helped organize and support the Miami-Dade CountryFest in 2024 and 2025, among other events. A3’s partnership with Miami-Dade County has been an overwhelming success to date,” the statement read. “Any suggestion that A3 acted inappropriately regarding CountryFest or funding for Loud and Live is simply not the case.”

This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 10:00 AM.