Shady charity with political ties gets $450K from Miami-Dade Commission

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Something stinks at Tropical Park, and it’s not the horse manure.

Because while Miami-Dade is sharpening its budget axe and slashing around $40 million from the budget for non-profit grants, a baby nonprofit with barely a bank account, zero track record and no actual contact info — but a politically-connected director — just landed a $250,000-a-year payday for 20 years courtesy of our county commission.

That could add up to $5 million and for what? Nobody really knows.

How did this happen? The Miami-Dade Commission, in a last-minute addition to the agenda, voted last week to give exclusive use of parts of Tropical Park as well as a 20-year contract to produce programming and events (like the Christmas festival that replaced Santa’s Enchanted Forest two years ago) to Loud and Live, which also produces other community events like Miami Speed Week and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. They were selected after a competitive request for proposals process and will bring $40 million to the county over the two decades.

But part of the deal was that Loud and Live give $250,000 to a charity of the county commission’s choosing every year for the entirety of the contract.

Read related: Facing $400M budget shortfall, Miami-Dade cuts senior meals, lifeguards, more

And the commission chose A3 Foundation, which is the same organization that got $75,000 in grants this year from Miami-Dade Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, and a $125,000 allocation in this year’s budget.

And who’s running this mysterious nonprofit? Francisco Petrirena, chief of staff to Miami City Manager Art Noriega who also serves as the city’s lobbyist in Tallahassee and founded a firm called Biltmore Strategies in June of last year. He is a full-time public employee now moonlighting as the sole paid staffer of a shady charity that’s already raking in state and county dollars despite no evidence of actually doing anything. Or even existing.

The Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks broke this story over the weekend, reporting that the new non-profit had less than $25,000 in the bank last year, no working website, no working phone number and an office address at a townhouse in West Miami purchased for $410,000 in 2016 by David and Jennifer Rodriguez, who seem to have no relation to the commissioner. It’s a common name.

In a phone interview with the Herald, Petrirena said he was paid $80,000 annually by the non-profit as its sole employee. A3 is involved in the organization of CountryFest, the rodeo-style agriculture and horse show at Tropical Park every spring that reportedly brings about 25,000 attendees.

“We help organize the festival,” he told the Herald, adding that the foundation’s mission is to promote agriculture education.

In a phone interview with Political Cortadito, Rodriguez said that the $200,000 in county funds were awarded to A3 because of its agricultural focus and is related solely to the organization’s help with the CountryFest. But Ladra wants the receipts.

While some have speculated that the A3 Foundation’s name is a nod to the chairman’s three children — whose names begin with the letter A, like their dad — Rodriguez also said that he never met Petrirena before became the District 10 commissioner and inherited Tropical Park and the CountryFest event from former Commissioner Javier Souto. And he stressed that the $250K that the foundation is getting from Loud and Live are not the county’s coffers.

“It’s 100% private money,” the commissioner told Ladra. “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.”

But when the county gets to decide where that money goes, it sort of becomes public dollars that belong to taxpayers.

Petrirena also happened to be one of the people who was considered to replace former county Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera, who left after he was tapped by President Donald Trump as ambassador to Panama. Is this the consolation prize after the commission appointed Natalie Milian Orbis instead?

Read related: Kevin Cabrera tapped as Panama ambassador; so who will replace him?

This is not the first grant applied for by the little-known A3 Foundation, created in 2023 by Petrirena — who worked for Doctors’ Health Plans and at Brandeis University in Boston, where he was a student in 2017 — Jose Vasquez and Zenny Mera, who may be a yoga instructor from Doral. Three months after incorporating, the non-profit got Florida Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez to sponsor a budget request of $500,000 “to promote sustainable agriculture, advocate for educational opportunities, and create awareness of community priorities.”

Despite the shockingly vague language, the legislature nearly doubled the allocation to $950,000. Maybe Petrirena has made lots of friends in Tallahassee. That includes $100K for Petrirena’s salary — wasn’t it $80K? — and $400K for “educational resources” and farming scholarships that haven’t materialized anywhere outside a budget line.

So, doing the math, Petrirena’s side gig has been awarded $1.4 million just this year. Where’s the documentation that all nonprofits have to provide to become eligible for county grants? Why doesn’t anyone at the county seem to know what A3’s actual role in CountryFest is?

Look, Ladra is all for ag education and community outreach. But if that’s what the county is really funding through A3, where are the programs? The metrics? The scholarships? The functioning website?

No, this looks less like charity and more like political patronage. Like, dare Ladra say it, money laundering. It can’t be a coincidence that Rodriguez passed legislation earlier this year to exempt CountryFest from those pesky, transparent public bidding requirements.

So what do we have? An elected official funneling public money to a private nonprofit with direct ties to another public official, working full-time in another government — all while normal, longstanding nonprofits with real missions and real staff delivering social services, after-school programs and food for needy families are about to get the rug pulled out from under them.

In this year’s budget message, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she had to make “painful” choices to fill a $402 million shortfall.

She’s right. It is painful — especially when you see where the money is still flowing.

Ladra doesn’t have political padrinos to give her county funds, but she relies on readers to help support independent watchdog journalism like this story. Please consider making a donation to Political Cortadito today to hold our electeds accountable.

  Anthony Rodriguez, Art Noriega