Tax money went to the A3 Foundation, few questions asked. Mayor orders new rules

After her administration approved more than $1 million for a nonprofit that’s now facing questions on how it spent the money, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is ordering stricter scrutiny of county payments.

The mayor this week released an administrative order requiring written agreements with any organization receiving county funding. The new rules are part of Levine Cava’s promised changes after her administration processed payments for the nonprofit A3 Foundation upon the request of a county commissioner without demanding to see detailed invoices or receipts to show where the money went.

“As we continue to deliver services to nearly three million residents, it is critical that we maintain public trust through consistent accountability,” Levine Cava wrote in a memo to county commissioners announcing the new rules.

Backed by the County Commission’s most powerful member, Chair Anthony Rodriguez, the A3 Foundation served as a financial clearinghouse for CountryFest, the county rodeo Rodriguez hosts each year in his district at Tropical Park.

A series of Miami Herald articles this year showed how Rodriguez’s staff arranged for the two-year-old charity to receive CountryFest dollars in order to pay for the rodeo. But the check requests didn’t have the kind of receipts and invoices that would show how the money was spent. After the Herald published its first article in July, Rodriguez’s office returned a $200,000 county check, uncashed, that the county had issued to the A3 Foundation to cover CountryFest expenses from earlier in the year.

The foundation was formed in late 2023, lists its headquarters as a West Miami townhouse and is run by Francisco Petrirena, whose full-time job is chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega. It has no public track record of philanthropy but secured nearly $1 million in charity grants in Florida’s 2026 budget for work on agricultural education. About half of the money came from dollars controlled by House Speaker Danny Perez, a Miami Republican and friend of both Petrirena and Rodriguez.

Rodriguez and the A3 Foundation have declined to answer questions about how the charity spent its county dollars beyond statements that said the money went to support CountryFest and that the A3 Foundation acted appropriately with its public funding.

Rodriguez’s office and an A3 lawyer did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

After the Herald began reporting on the A3 Foundation, Levine Cava called for an audit of the charity, and Miami-Dade commissioners voted to divert a yearly A3 Foundation allocation in a county contract to Miami-Dade’s Parks Foundation instead. The office of Miami-Dade Clerk and Comptroller Juan Fernandez-Barquin announced it would conduct the audit Levine Cava wanted, but it has not yet been completed, a spokesperson said this week.

Accountants under the clerk had pushed back against at least one request for an A3 check, saying it lacked the appropriate back-up materials. Herald reporting showed Levine Cava’s budget director, David Clodfelter, OK’d the check issuance after multiple requests from Rodriguez’s office.

Levine Cava also said in her Nov. 5 memo that her administration would be reasserting the mayor’s role under the Miami-Dade charter as the only elected official authorized to give instructions to county staff. “These foundational principles of separation of powers ensure the professional and effective operation of our government,” she wrote.

This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.