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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
How did A3 Foundation spend its county tax dollars? Miami-Dade mayor orders audit
As scrutiny grows over how a little-known charity secured about $2 million from Florida and Miami-Dade County, there's a question that should be fairly easy to answer: How did the A3 Foundation spend its taxpayer money? After more than a week of silence from the politically connected nonprofit, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has ordered her staff to try and find an answer to that question. In a memo released Saturday, Levine Cava instructed county staff to audit the charity, which has a listed headquarters in a West Miami townhouse and a top official in the city of Miami's government as its director. 'The concerns raised regarding the A3 Foundation's use of County funds and overall compliance with contract terms are warranted and require thorough answers,' Levine Cava said in a memo to Carladenise Edwards, a top deputy to the mayor who serves as chief administrative officer for Miami-Dade. A series of recent Miami Herald articles raised questions about how a foundation founded in late 2023 with no public track record of charity work could have such success securing government funding. County records show the County Commission's chairman, Anthony Rodriguez, used A3 as the clearinghouse for Miami-Dade funding for CountryFest, the annual rodeo that Rodriguez hosts each year in Tropical Park. While Rodriguez's staff arranged for event company Loud and Live to put on CountryFest, nearly $1 million in county funds for the Tropical Park festival appeared to go first to A3. Multiple people familiar with the arrangement said A3 was the entity that paid Loud and Live for its CountryFest expenses. The foundation's director, Francisco Petrirena, told the Miami Herald in a brief interview on July 18 that he started earning an $80,000 salary this year for his foundation work. He works full time as chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega. Petrirena has not responded to Herald inquiries after that interview, including requests to release the charity's tax returns, which federal law requires be available to the public. Earlier this month, Levine Cava recommended commissioners approve a 20-year deal with Loud and Live that gives the Doral company rights to put on ticketed events at Tropical Park's equestrian center in exchange for paying at least $40 million in rent to the Parks Department. The bidding documents for the contract included a requirement that the winner pay out $250,000 a year to a charity chosen by the County Commission, and the contract approved by commissioners on July 16 named A3 as the chosen nonprofit. Rodriguez sponsored the legislation. This week, Levine Cava's longtime campaign manager, Christian Ulvert, confirmed he's paid by Loud and Live as a consultant. Though he's not a registered lobbyist, Ulvert gets hired by developers and others seeking favorable decisions by Levine Cava and commissioners. On Saturday, Ulvert told the Herald he provides Loud and Live work related to 'community outreach and public relations' and that he did not speak to Levine Cava or members of her administration about the company's contract. On Wednesday, Levine Cava sent Loud and Live a letter saying she would not sign a contract that listed A3 as the beneficiary of the $250,000 yearly payment. The July 23 letter did not say if she planned to still require Loud and Live to make the payment to another charity. The Rodriguez legislation and contract said the charity payment comes out of Loud and Live's profits, so eliminating it entirely would boost the company's bottom line at Tropical Park. Commission approval of the Loud and Live contract with the A3 payment requirement came a day after Levine Cava released a 2026 budget proposal with millions of dollars in cuts to charity grants and parks services. It also came about a month after the A3 Foundation secured $950,000 in funding in the Florida budget for charitable work related to education and agriculture. Almost half of the funding came from House Speaker Danny Perez, a Miami Republican who is friends with both Petrirena and Rodriguez. Levine Cava's July 25 memo demanding an A3 audit followed a Miami Herald report showing her budget office vouching for $500,000 in county checks to A3 when accountants under the independent Clerk of the Court and Comptrollers Office flagged one $200,000 invoice for having no details beyond the phrase 'Payment for CountryFest2025.' 'Please help with the payment of this,' David Clodfelter, the county's budget director under Edwards, wrote to the Clerk's accounting division on the morning of July 4 to provide clearance for the $200,000 check. 'If additional information is really needed, I will reach out to the Chairman's Office.' Clodfelter this week said backup material wasn't needed because county commissioners passed legislation sponsored by Rodriguez that waived purchasing oversight rules for CountryFest. In addition to the A3 audit, Levine Cava's memo calls for stricter oversight of county charity grants. That includes mandated quarterly financial reports and annual audits. 'I am calling for the development of new countywide safeguards and protocols to strengthen accountability, even if procurement, research, and bidding processes are waived by the Board of County Commissioners,' Levine Cava wrote. The mayor had included $125,000 for the A3 Foundation in the 2025 budget that commissioners approved last fall — money the charity requested for CountryFest field trips for 2,000 students and scholarships for students pursuing careers in agriculture, according to a funding application released through a records request. Clodfelter told the Herald the budget request came from Rodriguez but that a grant agreement was never signed with A3. That meant the money wasn't released, he said. Rodriguez has not responded to recent Herald inquiries about the A3 Foundation. In an interview with the Political Cortadito blog, Rodriguez said the Loud and Live contract was good for Miami-Dade because it steers private money to a charity instead of having the county fund another charity payment. 'It's 100% private money,' he said. 'This is what the county should be looking at — how do we have private businesses that partner with the county support community benefits rather than it being paid by taxpayer dollars.'
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
‘The invoice has no detail': County accountants flagged foundation's check request
On a recent morning this month, Miami-Dade accounting manager Gloria Hortado flagged a bare-bones request to issue a $200,000 check to a charity called the A3 Foundation for expenses related to an annual springtime rodeo at Tropical Park. The A3 invoice submitted by the county's budget office had no financial details, only the phrase 'Payment for CountryFest2025.' 'We need more detail/description of what they are billing us for,' Hortado wrote in a July 3 email to staff members of the Office of Management and Budget, the agency that handles grant funding. 'Please provide a copy of the contract to be able to verify total costs of the event.' But a contract was never produced, according to the emails, and neither were any receipts behind the A3 invoice for exactly $200,000. The pushback by Hortado revealed in emails released Thursday offers the first public glimpse at someone in government questioning the county's payments to A3 — expenditures that are now causing turmoil for two of the most powerful officeholders in Miami-Dade: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, who hosts CountryFest. Recent reporting by the Miami Herald questioned the roughly $2 million in state and county funds that have gone to A3. The charity formed two years ago and is still headquartered in a West Miami townhouse, with no public record of charitable work — but a top city of Miami official as its paid director. Francisco Petrirena, chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega, is A3's president, and he told the Herald last week he was earning an $80,000 salary for his work with the nonprofit. He has declined interview requests since, and the A3 Foundation has not responded to Herald requests for the charity's tax returns, which must be open to public inspection under federal law. A3's financial arrangement with CountryFest — serving as the clearinghouse for money that ultimately went to the events vendor Loud and Live, which puts on the rodeo — has generated more than $1 million in county checks for A3 already, according to a log released Thursday. The log and emails came from the Office of the Court Clerk and Comptroller, which took over the county's finance arm in January as a newly independent agency. Some of the checks have not been cashed, bringing the amount paid out to A3 to just under $1 million. A steady stream of payments to A3 Foundation from Miami-Dade County Following the Herald stories, Levine Cava announced Wednesday that she would block a new $5 million funding stream for A3, which county commissioners approved just last week. The funding stream — a $250,000 yearly payment to A3 over 20 years — was a requirement for Loud and Live to secure a long-term contract to run ticketed events at Tropical Park's equestrian center, including the yearly holiday festival that replaced the venerable Santa's Enchanted Forest carnival. Levine Cava said she would not sign the version of the contract with the requirement for payments to A3, a nonprofit that separately was allocated $125,000 in the revised budget proposal the mayor sent to commissioners last fall. While Levine Cava's administration negotiated the Loud and Live contract for Tropical Park, with the required donation to a charity to be named by commissioners, legislation assigning the charitable payment to A3 came from Rodriguez, whose district includes Tropical Park. Levine Cava's announcement was her administration's first known effort to block county funding for A3. Levine Cava's office said Thursday the $125,000 for A3 that was added to the 2025 budget was a request from Rodriguez but that a grant agreement was never executed to release the money. A3 was a regular recipient of county grants on the commission dais. County records also show Rodriguez and multiple commissioners used charity dollars in their offices to give A3 about $265,000 over the last two years as part of their support of CountryFest. CountryFest hosted and organized by Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez Rodriguez is the host of CountyFest each year — his name greeted visitors at the event's main gate in April — and he's the one who set up A3 as the clearinghouse for the county funds allocated for the festival. But the organization that actually puts on CountryFest is Loud and Live. Emails released by Rodriguez's office Thursday afternoon show extensive communications between the chairman's staff and Loud and Live executives finalizing details of the cowhand-themed event. 'Please let us know what rides you would like to move forward with,' Fidel Urbina, director of event operations for Loud and Live, wrote in a Feb. 27 email to Rodriguez staffers, with a pricing list that ran from a cow-milking game for $2,100 to a 'mega' inflatable attraction for $29,000, which carried the extra expense of having to purchase custom socks for attendees. Rodriguez staffers held weekly calls with Loud and Live to pore over a punch list of tasks to get the festival ready to open on April 25, including chasing down county permits, finalizing the design of a bull mascot and efforts to cut costs. 'I had a chat with the Chairman and I think we need to have a face-to-face and review the budget top to bottom,' Tony Albelo, president and Loud of Live, wrote to Rodriguez staffers on Feb. 6. The emails also show the A3 Foundation having close ties to Rodriguez's staff when it came to the money flowing into the charity. An April 14 invoice from Loud and Live for $200,000 was billed to the A3 Foundation but listed the charity's contact as Rodriguez's legislative director, Aldo Gonzalez. State records do not list Gonzalez as a board member for A3. 'Morning Aldo,' Urbina wrote in an email to Gonzalez with the A3 invoice. 'Let us know when we should be receiving funds so we can start securing vendors.' Gonzalez and Rodriguez did not respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon. Weeks after Loud and Live sent the $200,000 invoice to A3 and Gonzalez, Gonzalez on May 14 sent a $200,000 bill from A3 to the county's budget office for payment. That was the $200,000 invoice that eventually landed in Hortado's inbox just a few weeks ago. Emails show she and other finance staffers were concerned the $200,000 request was an error because their office had already approved the Parks Department's request for a $300,000 CountryFest payment to A3 in April. Erica Olson, a division director in finance, wrote in an email to colleagues that the previous $300,000 invoice from Parks had some general references to CountryFest expenses, including rides, restrooms and tents, unlike the latest one she was reviewing. 'The invoice has no detail as to what is being billed like the Parks one did,' she wrote of the $200,000 bill that only listed 'Payment for CountryFest.' The finance staffers asked for backup material, like a contract, to show how much money the foundation was authorized to receive. Instead of a contract, the county's budget director, David Clodfelter, intervened, writing to say that the $200,000 was a legitimate A3 payment requested by Rodriguez's office. 'Hi. Happy Holidays. Please help with the payment of this,' Clodfelter wrote the morning of July 4. 'If additional information is really needed, I will reach out to the Chairman's Office.' On Thursday, Clodfelter told the Herald that lack of backup material for the A3 invoices was authorized under legislation that commissioners passed in 2024 waiving county purchasing rules for CountryFest. Rodriguez had sponsored that legislation. 'The Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution waiving all procurement and bidding rules, including market research, related to CountryFest. This waiver allowed payments to be made without the traditional competitive and research processes,' wrote Clodfelter, who works for Levine Cava. The emails show Clodfelter's staff asking him for help getting past the pushback by finance staffers, who work under Juan Fernandez-Barquin, the county's elected clerk and comptroller. 'Finance is having an issue with approving the CountryFest invoice because [of a] lack of description on the invoice,' budget staffer Connie Hernandez wrote a colleague, John Sarduy, the morning of the county's Fourth of July holiday, which fell on a Friday this year. She suggested a note from Clodfelter or Rodriguez's office might be enough to resolve the issue. Sarduy forwarded the email to Clodfelter, with a note: 'We need your help with this repayment request.'
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Miami-Dade mayor moves to block future $5 million payout to foundation under scrutiny
Miami-Dade's mayor said Wednesday she'll block a planned $250,000 yearly payment to a nonprofit that's been the subject of scrutiny in recent days over its ability to secure state and county funds without a philanthropic track record. A Parks Department contract recently approved by county commissioners required a vendor to pay the A3 Foundation $250,000 a year. In a letter to the contractor, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote that she won't be authorizing the planned annual payout required under the agreement. Recent articles by the Miami Herald reported that A3 is a two-year-old charity headquartered in a West Miami townhouse and run by a top official in the city of Miami with no public record of charitable work. A 20-year contract that Levine Cava had recommended to commissioners just last week required the charitable payouts from Loud and Live, a production company that will pay Miami-Dade to run ticketed events at Tropical Park's equestrian center, the former home to Santa's Enchanted Forest. The payouts Loud and Live was required to make would have totaled $5 million over the course of the 20-year contract. The contract allowed the County Commission to select the charity, and Chair Anthony Rodriguez selected A3, a nonprofit that has already received nearly $1 million in county funds connected to the CountryFest rodeo that Rodriguez hosts each year at Tropical Park. In her letter to Loud and Live, Levine Cava said she will not be signing an amended contract that would require the company to pay A3, as was called for in legislation that county commissioners passed by a wide margin on July 16. Levine Cava said her administration will consider other action before finalizing the Tropical Park agreement. 'At the time, we are determining next steps,' Levine Cava wrote. 'We will be in communication with you over the coming days.' Rodriguez represents the commission's District 10, which includes Tropical Park. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Levine Cava's letter. The letter arrived as the Herald's stories were sparking growing questions about how A3 ended up on track to get millions through a Parks contract just a day after Levine Cava unveiled a 2026 budget proposal that cuts more than $40 million in nonprofit funding. Levine Cava's current budget included a late addition of $125,000 for the A3 Foundation as commissioners prepared to give final approval of her 2025 spending plan last fall. Her budget office has also approved payouts to A3 in recent years at the request of a Rodriguez staffer. County records show Rodriguez made A3 the clearinghouse for county funds dedicated for CountryFest, the signature event in Rodriguez's suburban district in the Westchester area. In the last two years, A3 received nearly $1 million from Miami-Dade. This year it also secured $950,000 in the Florida budget, with almost half of that coming from an allocation made by House Speaker Danny Perez. Perez is a close friend of Rodriguez. He's also a friend of A3's director, Francisco Petrirena, whose full-time job is chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega. Petrirena told the Herald last week he was earning $80,000 a year running A3 but hadn't been paid prior to 2025. An outside employment form the city released Wednesday also showed Petrirena volunteering his time for A3 in 2024. He listed zero compensation as director of the A3 Foundation last year. He also listed $75,000 in consulting fees from a company he owns, Biltmore Strategies. Before becoming chief of staff to Noriega in May, Petrirena served as government relations director in Miami, a position that made him the city's in-house lobbyist for state matters. Petrirena did not respond to requests for comment on Levine Cava's letter or one earlier in the day Wednesday on who his clients are at Biltmore Strategies.
The Advertiser
7 days ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
Australia pays US second $800m for AUKUS amid review
Australia has paid the United States $A800 million in the second instalment under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, despite an ongoing formal review of the agreement by US President Donald Trump's administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the latest instalment on Wednesday, following an initial $A500 million paid in February. In 2023, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Australia committed to spend $A368 billion over three decades in its biggest-ever defence deal. Canberra is due to pay the US $A3 billion by the end of the year to support the expansion of American submarine shipyards, Reuters reported in April. "There's a schedule of payments to be made. We have an agreement with the United States as well as with the United Kingdom, it is about increasing their capacity, their industrial capacity," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC. "As part of that as well, we have Australians on the ground, learning those skills." Trump launched a formal review of AUKUS in June to examine whether the pact met his "American First" criteria. It will be led by Elbridge Colby, who in the past has expressed scepticism about AUKUS. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defence as tensions grow over China's military build-up, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. "We support AUKUS," Albanese said. "We have an agreement to a treaty level, with our partners, signed, of course in San Diego with the United States and United Kingdom." Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine. Australia has paid the United States $A800 million in the second instalment under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, despite an ongoing formal review of the agreement by US President Donald Trump's administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the latest instalment on Wednesday, following an initial $A500 million paid in February. In 2023, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Australia committed to spend $A368 billion over three decades in its biggest-ever defence deal. Canberra is due to pay the US $A3 billion by the end of the year to support the expansion of American submarine shipyards, Reuters reported in April. "There's a schedule of payments to be made. We have an agreement with the United States as well as with the United Kingdom, it is about increasing their capacity, their industrial capacity," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC. "As part of that as well, we have Australians on the ground, learning those skills." Trump launched a formal review of AUKUS in June to examine whether the pact met his "American First" criteria. It will be led by Elbridge Colby, who in the past has expressed scepticism about AUKUS. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defence as tensions grow over China's military build-up, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. "We support AUKUS," Albanese said. "We have an agreement to a treaty level, with our partners, signed, of course in San Diego with the United States and United Kingdom." Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine. Australia has paid the United States $A800 million in the second instalment under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, despite an ongoing formal review of the agreement by US President Donald Trump's administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the latest instalment on Wednesday, following an initial $A500 million paid in February. In 2023, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Australia committed to spend $A368 billion over three decades in its biggest-ever defence deal. Canberra is due to pay the US $A3 billion by the end of the year to support the expansion of American submarine shipyards, Reuters reported in April. "There's a schedule of payments to be made. We have an agreement with the United States as well as with the United Kingdom, it is about increasing their capacity, their industrial capacity," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC. "As part of that as well, we have Australians on the ground, learning those skills." Trump launched a formal review of AUKUS in June to examine whether the pact met his "American First" criteria. It will be led by Elbridge Colby, who in the past has expressed scepticism about AUKUS. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defence as tensions grow over China's military build-up, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. "We support AUKUS," Albanese said. "We have an agreement to a treaty level, with our partners, signed, of course in San Diego with the United States and United Kingdom." Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine. Australia has paid the United States $A800 million in the second instalment under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, despite an ongoing formal review of the agreement by US President Donald Trump's administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the latest instalment on Wednesday, following an initial $A500 million paid in February. In 2023, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Australia committed to spend $A368 billion over three decades in its biggest-ever defence deal. Canberra is due to pay the US $A3 billion by the end of the year to support the expansion of American submarine shipyards, Reuters reported in April. "There's a schedule of payments to be made. We have an agreement with the United States as well as with the United Kingdom, it is about increasing their capacity, their industrial capacity," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC. "As part of that as well, we have Australians on the ground, learning those skills." Trump launched a formal review of AUKUS in June to examine whether the pact met his "American First" criteria. It will be led by Elbridge Colby, who in the past has expressed scepticism about AUKUS. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defence as tensions grow over China's military build-up, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. "We support AUKUS," Albanese said. "We have an agreement to a treaty level, with our partners, signed, of course in San Diego with the United States and United Kingdom." Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine.
Perth Now
7 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
Australia pays US second $800m for AUKUS amid review
Australia has paid the United States $A800 million in the second instalment under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, despite an ongoing formal review of the agreement by US President Donald Trump's administration. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the latest instalment on Wednesday, following an initial $A500 million paid in February. In 2023, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Australia committed to spend $A368 billion over three decades in its biggest-ever defence deal. Canberra is due to pay the US $A3 billion by the end of the year to support the expansion of American submarine shipyards, Reuters reported in April. "There's a schedule of payments to be made. We have an agreement with the United States as well as with the United Kingdom, it is about increasing their capacity, their industrial capacity," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC. "As part of that as well, we have Australians on the ground, learning those skills." Trump launched a formal review of AUKUS in June to examine whether the pact met his "American First" criteria. It will be led by Elbridge Colby, who in the past has expressed scepticism about AUKUS. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defence as tensions grow over China's military build-up, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. "We support AUKUS," Albanese said. "We have an agreement to a treaty level, with our partners, signed, of course in San Diego with the United States and United Kingdom." Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine.
