Councilman Louis Johanson were taped accepting bribes from FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks in the nationally prominent Abscam scandals, he and freshman councilman John F. Street, who later became Mayor of Philadelphia, began regularly demanding explanations and resignations from the implicated City Council members. When Schwartz resigned as City Council President in the fall of 1980, Cohen backed his successor as District Councilman in the 8th Councilmanic District, Joseph E. Coleman, whom Cohen had defeated in 1967 for the Democratic nomination, as Council President. Coleman, the first African-American to serve as Council President, later appointed Cohen as Chairman of City Council's Rules Committee. Cohen's 25 years as at large councilman were the longest tenure in that position since it was created by City Charter amendment in 1951. Throughout it, Cohen was an independent voice in City Council, actively examining and often seeking to modify or defeat the proposals of Mayors William J. Green, W. Wilson Goode, Ed Rendell, and John F. Street. Advanced years Celebrating his 90th birthday as a member of City Council on November 13, 2004, Cohen told The Philadelphia Inquirer he would not retire from City Council and would run for reelection in 2007. Over 500 people attended a "Tribute to Change" reception at the University of Pennsylvania, held to raise money to fund Bread and Roses, a Philadelphia charitable foundation, and to honor him and his wife Florence Cohen for their lifetimes of activism, on September 12, 2005. The event, held near the law school where he had graduated first in his class more than 68 years earlier, turned out to be his last public appearance before his death. Personal background In 1946, Cohen married Florence Herzog, whom he had met when she too worked for the Rural Electrification Administration. Together they had four children. His wife headed a community organization, the Ogontz Area Neighbors Association, and two political organizations, the 17th Ward Democratic Women's Club and the New Democratic Coalition of Philadelphia. From January 1980 until her retirement in September 1996, she served as his City Council Chief of Staff. His son Denis P. Cohen served for 24 years as an assistant district attorney, and was a leader of the Philadelphia Bar Association. His son Mark B. Cohen is a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. He was sworn in on January 2, 2018. His daughter Sherrie Cohen was a trial