Miami-Dade politicians quietly proclaimed a ‘Formula 1 Day’ — and headed to a VIP suite

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Miami-Dade politicians didn’t need a ticket to get into a VIP suite at the recent Formula One extravanganza. They had a proclamation for that.

Ahead of the Grand Prix race on Sunday, May 5, four county commissioners joined Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in one of the most exclusive corners of the racing complex built around the home field of the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium.

Gathered outside the VIP suite belonging to stadium and team owner Stephen Ross, they presented the billionaire with a framed proclamation declaring a “Formula 1 Day” in Miami-Dade County.

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Levine Cava’s office confirmed she mingled inside the Ross suite in the exclusive Paddock Club complex after the presentation but said she left before the race started. The four commissioners — Juan Carlos Bermudez and Kevin Cabrera, plus the board’s vice chair, Anthony Rodriguez, and Chair Oliver Gilbert — stayed for the race, according to multiple people who saw them in the suite with views of the Formula One finish line.

A commission spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions about their suite visit after the four issued a joint statement on May 10, saying that they attended Formula One to present a proclamation and participate in a pre-race ceremony.

In a brief interview, Rodriguez questioned the scrutiny of his race day whereabouts for an event that Miami-Dade officials before him helped recruit to Miami Gardens in 2022.

“I was there. I enjoyed it,” he said outside the commission chambers before a recent committee meeting. “It’s stupid to think someone is going to present a proclamation and then leave.”

Tickets to Formula One can cost thousands of dollars, and Florida law prohibits elected officials from accepting gifts from companies that lobby them — a category that includes the Miami Dolphins, which receives millions in Miami-Dade subsidies, including $4 million in county money earmarked for the weekend Formula One race.

Miami-Dade commissioners are also preparing to vote on a $46 million funding package to subsidize seven World Cup matches scheduled for Hard Rock in 2026.

That amount is on top of the $15 million that commissioners awarded the Dolphins in 2022 to play host to World Cup matches as part of a stadium-subsidy deal that Ross secured from Miami-Dade in 2014 in exchange for a privately funded modernization of Hard Rock that the team said cost about $750 million. The subsidy grants are tied to Hard Rock attracting major events.

The Dolphins have yet to receive cash from the deal because of a provision that allows Miami-Dade to delay payments for more than a decade, with payments expected to begin at $3 million next year.

Because the Dolphins employ lobbyists registered with the Miami-Dade government, Florida law generally bans county elected officials from accepting gifts from Ross and other team officials, said Caroline Klancke, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Ethics Institute. That would cover admission to pricey events like Formula One.

But there are exceptions if an elected official is attending an event to give a speech or presentation — considered an “honorarium” in Florida statutes — when admission wouldn’t be treated as a gift or violate rules.

“They are expressly exempted from the definition of ‘gift,’” Klanke wrote in an email Thursday.

Representatives of the commissioners and the mayor cited the proclamation as the reason why their race day visits were government business.

A statement from the County Commission’s media office for the four commissioners said: “In our official capacity, we were invited by the Community Relations Department of the Miami Dolphins to Hard Rock Stadium, where we joined our Mayor in presenting a proclamation and participated in official ceremonies representing the County.”

“Mayor Levine Cava attended the Formula 1 Miami GP in her official capacity as Mayor of Miami-Dade County,” said Natalia Jaramillo, communications director for Levine Cava, citing the Ross proclamation and the mayor’s participation in the pre-race ceremonies on the track. “She did not stay for the race.”

Jaramillo said the mayor was also there to greet Formula One executives responsible for keeping Miami-Dade as the home of what’s become one of the top sporting events in the area. Jaramillo said no gift disclosure was required because the mayor was in the track complex on county business.

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None of the county’s social media feeds made note of the May 5 presentation in front of the lush vertical garden outside the Ross F1 suite.

The mayor’s office provided a photo of the proclamation ceremony when the Miami Herald requested it a week later. The photo shows a smiling Ross holding the proclamation with Levine Cava and the four commissioners around him. Also in the photo is Miami Gardens Mayor Rodney Harris and Myles Pistorius, general counsel for the Dolphins and a registered lobbyist in Miami-Dade.

While presented on May 5 during the weekend-long event, the resolution actually declared May 4 as “Formula One Day.”

Though the resolution signed by Levine Cava asks Miami-Dade residents to “join me in noting the prestige and honor brought to our County during Formula 1,” there does not appear to be any online mention of “Formula One Day” or the resolution on county websites or social media feeds.

Jaramillo, the Levine Cava spokesperson, said the mayor’s office didn’t publicize the presentation because there wasn’t a county photographer there to capture high-quality photos of the event.

While not photographed in the Ross suite, Levine Cava did pose for a photo that day in another exclusive area: a hospitality villa reserved for the county-funded Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Jaramillo said Levine Cava accepted an invitation by the center’s namesake benefactor, Adrienne Arsht, to stop by. The Arsht Center’s social media feed later posted a photo of the two together. A spokesperson for the Arsht Center said the nonprofit did not pay for the villa but did not respond to a follow-up question asking who had paid for it.

Levine Cava and the other county office holders weren’t hiding from the public during Formula One. The mayor and commissioners had prominent spots on the track during the national anthem ceremony, with social media footage showing Rodriguez, a Republican, hustling to shake hands with former president Donald Trump as he entered the area while Levine Cava, a Democrat, was turning in the other direction. Gov. Ron DeSantis was there, too, and spotted in the Ross suite as well.

Bob Jarvis, a law professor specializing in ethics at Nova Southeastern University, said there’s nothing wrong with an elected official shaking hands and being polite when an official event takes them near pricey environs like a sky box.

But, he said, it’s also not appropriate for the same officials to utilize a proclamation ceremony as cover for free admission to a lavish event that politicians could just pay for themselves.

“If they stay for two minutes to glad hand, I don’t think it’s a problem. But if it turns out you were really there for three hours, yes, you’ve gotten a gift,” Jarvis said. “The cleanest way to deal with it is to write a check.”