As A3 Foundation collected rodeo money from Miami-Dade, private dollars came, too

It wasn’t just tax money that the A3 Foundation collected for a Miami-Dade County rodeo at Tropical Park.

Private sponsors agreed to pay more than $130,000 for this year’s CountryFest, according to county emails. That adds to the amount of rodeo funds that were collected by the politically connected charity, which is already facing questions about how it spent public dollars meant for the rodeo.

The County Commission office that used the A3 Foundation as the clearinghouse for public CountryFest money also utilized the charity as the recipient for private sponsors of the rodeo, according to the public records obtained by the Miami Herald.

Emails show staff of Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez coordinating payments for A3 from about a dozen companies and nonprofits that agreed to sponsor CountryFest, a springtime celebration of agriculture and rodeo skills. Rodriguez’s district includes Tropical Park, where he has played the role of CountryFest host since being elected to his District 10 seat in 2022.

The sponsors included nonprofits like Partnership for Miami and the county’s fire union — which both pledged $10,000 — plus county vendors like MCM, which has a maintenance contract at Miami International Airport, and Via Transportation, provider of the county’s MetroConnect shuttle service. Both of those vendors pledged $5,000 to CountryFest this year.

A series of Miami Herald articles this year drew attention to the A3 Foundation and the nearly $1.2 million in Miami-Dade tax dollars the two-year-old charity has received since 2024.

Almost all of the money was allocated for CountryFest, but the charity with no public record of philanthropy has so far declined to answer questions about how it spent the public dollars. The foundation’s executive director is Francisco Petrirena, whose full-time job is chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega. Petrirena previously worked in the private sector with Florida House Speaker Danny Perez, who is friends with Rodriguez, and Perez helped the A3 Foundation secure $950,000 in this year’s state budget.

As the A3 Foundation was sending invoices to Miami-Dade for CountryFest expenses this year, Rodriguez’s staff was also rounding up private dollars to route through the foundation for the rodeo.

“Thanks for reaching out and sending over the sponsorship info. FPL will be glad to support at the Saddle Up level for $5,000. When you have a chance please send me an invoice so we can begin processing payment,” Christopher Ferreira, an external affairs manager for Florida Power and Light, wrote to a Rodriguez aide on April 4, three weeks before this year’s rodeo kicked off with a VIP reception for county commissioners and sponsors.

County records show FPL soon received the billing paperwork from the A3 Foundation, with Petrirena as the contact.

It’s common for organizers of county events to secure private-sector sponsor dollars. But as the A3 Foundation faces a county audit over its public spending, the newly revealed sponsor dollars add to the known tally of rodeo money that the charity received on top of the more than $1 million it received from the county government for the same Tropical Park event in 2024 and 2025.

That money is now under scrutiny. This summer, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called for an audit of the A3 Foundation. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, the county’s elected clerk, who also oversees Miami-Dade auditors, said his office would conduct the audit, but results have not been released.

In September, county commissioners voted to cancel a planned $250,000 yearly payout to the A3 Foundation required of a county parks vendor in a contract that was approved days before the Herald’s first story on the charity. That required annual payment is now going to the county’s Parks Foundation instead.

Rodriguez and Petrirena have declined to answer Herald questions about how the A3 Foundation spent its public dollars. They also did not respond to inquiries Friday about how the charity spent its private-sector sponsor dollars for CountryFest.

While the records obtained by the Herald don’t show receipts confirming that the A3 Foundation deposited the sponsor checks, the email correspondence, foundation invoices and other documents show a robust effort by Rodriguez’s office to solicit rodeo funds for the charity.

“It was such a pleasure having your support for the 2024 Miami-Dade CountryFest— you truly made a difference in its success!” Rodriguez aide Samantha Del Valle wrote in a Jan. 9 email to Angelica Santibanez, head of community engagement in Florida for Amazon. “I wanted to share this year’s sponsorship deck with you in case you’re interested in partnering with us again.”

Santibanez wrote back that Amazon was happy to sponsor CountryFest in 2025 and would sign up for a Silver Spur-level package, with 25 VIP admission tickets and Amazon branding displayed during the event.

An invoice followed from the A3 Foundation for $25,000, provided to Rodriguez’s office by Petrirena. After multiple exchanges between Santibanez and Del Valle on technical requirements of Amazon’s payment system, word came from the A3 Foundation that the sponsorship money had arrived.

“I received the funds!” Petrirena emailed Del Valle on June 12, using a Gmail account bearing the A3 Foundation’s name. “Thank you so much.”

Of the $1.2 million the A3 Foundation received from Miami-Dade over the last two years, the Herald has accounted for roughly $883,000 either in known CountryFest expenses or returned funds. That leaves roughly $310,000 in county funds that are not accounted for in the Herald’s tally.

The county records obtained by the Herald show sponsors also committed $135,000 to the A3 Foundation for the 2025 CountryFest.

Past Herald reporting showed the county money the A3 Foundation received for CountryFest wasn’t always needed to cover rodeo expenses.

A $200,000 check that Miami-Dade issued the charity in July to cover outstanding CountryFest expenses was returned, uncashed, by Rodriguez’s office weeks after the Herald published its first article about the A3 Foundation on July 19.

While Rodriguez’s staff directed companies to write their CountryFest checks to the A3 Foundation, county emails suggest the charity wasn’t always quick to spend the private-sector money, either.

In May, the construction equipment rental company Kelly Tractor used UPS to send a $25,000 check to the West Miami townhouse that A3 uses for its headquarters. While the UPS tracking summary showed the check was delivered, Kelly accountants said the check still hadn’t been cashed a month later, according to an internal email chain later forwarded to Rodriguez’s office.

“They haven’t cashed it yet!” Mabel Beltran, a Kelly marketing manager, wrote in a June 25 email to company accountants asking about the status of the A3 check. “Wow! I have to call them and see.”

That afternoon, Beltran forwarded the email thread to Del Valle, the staffer in Rodriguez’s office. “Can you check on this?” Beltran asked.

The next morning, Del Valle forwarded the email to Petrirena, using his nickname in the greeting.

“Hi Panchito!” she wrote. “Please see below.”

The records the Herald obtained don’t show a response.

This story was originally published November 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.