Miami-Dade County taxpayers spent more than $35,000 to send Commissioner Oliver Gilbert and a staff member on business-class flights to Rome, where Gilbert met Pope Leo XIV and handed out county gifts at a two-day table tennis conference that was never publicly announced.

Gilbert and his District 1 aide Aiyanna Stiverne spent $27,000 on business-class airfare alone for the World UnPlugNPlay Day Conference on Wednesday, June 3, and Thursday, June 4. Lodging, meals and ground transportation pushed the total past $35,000, according to expense reports the Miami Herald obtained through a public records request.

The trip only came to light when Gilbert confirmed it to the Herald on Sunday, June 7, during an interview about his congressional campaign launch.

Gilbert represents District 1, covering the Miami Gardens area around Hard Rock Stadium. He served as Miami Gardens mayor from 2012 to 2020 and is running in the Democratic primary for Florida's 24th Congressional District to succeed Rep. Frederica Wilson. He announced his campaign June 7 at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens.

A papal audience and a gift bag from Gilbert's employer

"I told him that I wasn't Catholic, but I was very proud of him," Gilbert told the Herald about meeting the pope. "It was an honor to meet him. It was an honor to represent the county there."

Gilbert, who attends a Baptist church, presented Pope Leo XIV with a key to Miami-Dade County, a signed Dan Marino Dolphins jersey and a gift bag from St. Thomas University, the Catholic university in Miami Gardens where Gilbert is employed in the president's office. His July 24 statement said the trip was unrelated to his St. Thomas position.

Inside the Vatican conference and its $3,000 van bill

The conference was organized by Killerspin, a Chicago-based table tennis company. Gilbert was one of 50 attendees. The June 3 program began with a private papal audience and the presentation of a custom ping-pong table shipped to the Vatican for the pope, a Chicago native. The schedule also included a guided Vatican tour, a keynote panel, cocktails on a Vatican patio, a gala dinner and a Sistine Chapel tour on day two before attendees departed.

Expense reports show roughly $3,000 for a van available to Gilbert and Stiverne from morning to near midnight on both conference days. On Wednesday, July 15, a county accountant in the independent Office of the Clerk and Comptroller asked a commission administrator to explain why that transportation was procured. Elda Green, director of the County Commission's support staff, responded that Gilbert was sharing the van but did not identify who else used it. No further action has been publicly reported.

Gilbert's office defends the trip as county policy allows it

Gilbert's office justified the trip by noting approximately 600,000 Catholics live in Miami-Dade. His written statement said that "when given the opportunity to present the key to Miami-Dade County to the Vicar of Christ on earth in representation of the Residents of Miami-Dade County this office thought it was important" to attend. Business-class airfare is permitted under county travel policy for flights exceeding five hours.

Spending draws scrutiny amid budget cuts and transit warnings

The spending surfaces during a tight budget year. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's proposed $14.3 billion fiscal year 2026-27 budget, presented Tuesday, July 15, eliminates 12 bus routes and warns of deeper cuts if Amendment 3 passes in November. That ballot measure could strip $385.8 million from county revenues in its first year. The measure would also reduce property tax revenues in Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach and Golden Beach, according to a Biscayne Times analysis. Gilbert himself, as transportation committee chair, warned on Tuesday, July 14, that the county's transit funding approach is unsustainable. "There is a crash coming," he said, according to Miami Herald reporter Doug Hanks.

Killerspin canceled a planned interview with the Herald and did not respond to questions about the conference.