Tax records show A3 Foundation billed Miami-Dade more than it spent for a rodeo

The A3 Foundation billed Miami-Dade County more than $400,000 to put on a county rodeo last year but only ended up spending a portion of those tax dollars on the springtime event, according to a newly available tax return.

In May 2024, the politically connected foundation sent the county a $421,000 invoice to pay for tents, vendors, food trucks and other expenses for that year’s CountryFest. Two months later, the county sent the A3 Foundation a check for the full amount.

But the foundation’s federal tax return says it spent only $279,137 on CountryFest in 2024 — leaving about $142,000 in tax dollars leftover.

The tax return was filed last month and recently provided to the Miami Herald by the A3 Foundation through a lawyer for the charity, John Priovolos. Federal law requires nonprofits to produce tax returns for public inspection upon request.

The 2024 return is the first look at spending details for the A3 Foundation, which has been under scrutiny after a series of Herald articles this year raised questions about its public funding.

Local prosecutors are looking at the A3 Foundation too, with the Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney now conducting an investigation that at least touches on the charity, according to a recent response to a request for public records.

Charity behind a Miami-Dade rodeo is under scrutiny

When the Herald requested emails that mention the “A3 Foundation” from a Miami-Dade prosecutor believed to be making inquiries about the charity, a lawyer for the office cited an exemption in Florida law for public records that are part of an open investigation.

“As these relate to an open/pending investigation, we have no public records to provide at this time,” wrote Lorna Salomon, a lawyer who oversees public records for the Office of the State Attorney.

The Herald has not learned the focus of the investigation or whether prosecutors are looking into any of the questions raised in the Herald’s articles.

The reporting found that Miami-Dade allocated more than $1 million in CountryFest funds to the A3 Foundation over the last two years, without requiring the receipts or invoices that would show how the tax money was spent.

Most of the payments came as requests from the office of County Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, who hosts CountryFest each year in his district at Tropical Park.

Rodriguez’s staff used the A3 Foundation as a financial clearinghouse for Miami-Dade funds allocated to the rodeo and agricultural event, with the A3 Foundation submitting CountryFest invoices to the commissioner’s office and his staff processing payments through the county’s purchasing system. The foundation then paid an events company, Loud and Live, for the actual CountryFest event expenses, such as bounce houses, carnival rides and entertainment.

With the A3 Foundation not providing backup paperwork on where the money was going, county records don’t show how the A3 Foundation spent its public dollars. Rodriguez and the charity’s director, Francisco Petrirena, have so far declined to answer questions about the A3 Foundation’s finances or spending.

The A3 Foundation’s top expense and revenue source: CountryFest

The 2024 tax return lists the CountryFest expense in a section dedicated to a charity’s “program service accomplishments.” CountryFest is the lone entry in that section of the federal form, which describes the foundation’s mission as promoting “sustainable agriculture,” as well as to advocate for education and create “awareness of community priorities.”

In that section, CountryFest is listed as costing the foundation $279,137. That figure is close to the $267,000 that Loud and Live, the Doral events company behind CountryFest, told the Herald it was paid by A3 last year to put on the Tropical Park rodeo for Miami-Dade.

When the Herald published its first A3 Foundation story in July, county commissioners had just voted to require Loud and Live to make a yearly $250,000 charitable payment to the foundation as a condition of Loud and Live’s county management contract for Tropical Park. The measure had been recommended by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and sponsored by Rodriguez. (Following the Herald’s reporting, county commissioners voted to direct the yearly donation to the Miami-Dade Parks Foundation instead of A3.)

The July 16 vote approving that 20-year contract with Loud and Live came weeks after the A3 Foundation secured a $950,000 allocation in the state budget, including $450,000 from a small portion of the Legislature’s budget published by Florida House Speaker Danny Perez, a Miami Republican and friend to both Rodriguez and Petrirena. Known as the “sprinkle list,” that portion of the budget was approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

While the A3 Foundation secured a spot in the budget, it’s unclear if it will ever receive the state dollars, which are paid out on a reimbursement basis once charities can show eligible expenses.

2024 tax return offers first look at A3 Foundation spending

The Herald articles questioned why the governments approved so much money for a charity formed in late 2023 and with no public record of philanthropy.

For a headquarters, the charity lists an accounting office run out of a West Miami townhouse. The foundation’s website has idle links on its “Projects” page and no contact information. Petrirena, the foundation’s director, serves as chief of staff to Art Noriega, Miami’s city manager.

According to the organization’s 2024 tax return, the charity’s top source of income last year was Miami-Dade County, which accounted for 80 cents of every dollar the foundation collected. With $545,000 coming into the charity last year, the $279,137 listed as spent on CountryFest was the A3 Foundation’s highest expense in 2024.

Other details in the tax return include:

• The foundation paid $15,000 on travel expenses and another $10,419 on conferences or meetings. No details were provided on whose travel and meeting expenses were paid.
• Petrirena earned $26,824 in 2024 from the A3 Foundation. The 37-year-old, who earns $192,000 at the city of Miami, listed working about five hours a week on the A3 Foundation in the 2024 return.
• When 2024 ended, the A3 Foundation had about $135,000 cash in the bank. This year, according to public records, the charity submitted $750,000 in invoices to Miami-Dade, and the county issued the A3 Foundation checks for that amount. As the Herald previously reported, not all of it was needed to cover rodeo expenses. Weeks after the Herald published its first article on the A3 Foundation, Rodriguez’s office returned — uncashed — a $200,000 county check that had been issued to the charity for 2025 CountryFest expenses.
• Last year, the foundation reported paying $92,500 for professional fundraising services. The tax return doesn’t say where that money went or offer any details beyond the amount. 

It’s not known if the fundraising expense is tied to the A3 Foundation pursuing grant dollars for 2025 and beyond. The charity’s tax return for this year won’t be due until 2026.

Comparing the donations listed in the 2024 tax return to the funds brought in by the CountryFest sponsorship operation run by Rodriguez’s staff, it doesn’t appear the A3 Foundation needed professional help raising the private money it took in last year.

The tax return lists about $100,000 from private contributors to the A3 Foundation. Eight of the 12 contributors were also mentioned in emails by Rodriguez staff members while they were trying to recruit CountryFest sponsors as part of their county jobs, according to Miami-Dade records obtained by the Herald.

Contributors include Kelly Tractor, which gave the A3 Foundation $35,000; MasTec, a Coral Gables infrastructure company that gave $10,000; and the county police union, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, which gave $5,000.

All three were listed on the charity’s 2024 tax return and on a “Sponsorship Tracker for CountryFest” that Rodriguez’s staff was circulating in the weeks leading up to the event, held on the third weekend of April last year.

Of the $102,000 in private donations reported by the A3 Foundation last year, 80% of the money came from entities listed on the CountryFest sponsorship tracker maintained by Rodriguez’s office. The tracker includes the names of lobbyists that the county employees listed as go-betweens for some sponsorship dollars.

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