Investigators are looking into whether North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph abused his power by allegedly seeking opinions from attorneys outside the city about the mayor’s term limits. The Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission is reviewing the allegations and communicating with the county’s State Attorney’s Office on the matter, the Miami Herald confirmed Tuesday. Both agencies declined to comment on whether an inquiry had been opened. The probe began after the agencies got a referral last week from attorney Michael Pizzi, who represents North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo in an ongoing defamation lawsuit. Pizzi pointed to a Feb. 14 email that City Attorney Sarah Johnston sent to DeFillipo after he asked her to tell him who was seeking information about the term-limit issue. Johnston told the mayor that Joseph had been “opinion shopping” last year, asking for opinions from outside lawyers even after she told him that DeFillipo was indeed eligible to seek reelection and showed him opinions that said as much. “He insisted that there must be truth to the rumor he heard about term limits and wanted another opinion,” Johnston told DeFillipo. “I explained the issues with opinion shopping and [said] the current Charter language was not ambiguous.”
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