Joseph M. Centorino assumed the position of Inspector General for the City of Miami Beach on November 1, 2019.  The position was created following a citywide referendum in 2018 in which 81% of city voters supported a charter amendment establishing the independent watchdog agency.

Mr. Centorino previously served as the Executive Director/General Counsel of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust from 2011 to 2018.  In that position he oversaw ethics training and the provision of ethics opinions for elected officials, public employees, lobbyists and local government attorneys, as well as the enforcement of the Miami-Dade Ethics Code, which covers all public servants in Miami-Dade County government as well as all municipalities within the County.

Prior to his County service, he spent twenty-five years as an Assistant State Attorney at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office under State Attorneys Janet Reno and Katherine Fernandez Rundle. His service in that office included sixteen years as the Chief of the Public Corruption Unit, where he supervised, investigated and prosecuted major corruption cases involving elected and appointed public officials and public employees.

Mr. Centorino began his career in Massachusetts as an aide to U.S. Representative Michael J. Harrington, and later worked in private law practice and as an Assistant District Attorney in Essex County.  He also served for eight years as an elected city councilman in his hometown of Salem, MA.

Mr. Centorino holds B.A. and M.A.  degrees from Tufts University in Political Science, a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School, and is a member of the Florida Bar, as well as the Bars of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as an instructor of Professionalism and Ethics at Florida International University, and is a frequent lecturer, speaker and panelist on corruption and ethics-related topics.  He was the recipient of the Lawyers in Leadership Award from the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law in 2011, and has served on the Florida Bar Professional Ethics Committee.