7 BRONX WEEKLY May 3, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
Phil Foglia at a wedding. Photo Photo courtesy of the Foglia family
BY JASON COHEN
Phil Foglia prosecuted mobsters,
drug dealers and corrupt
politicians and won record-setting
civil settlements.
He was best friends with actor
Chazz Palminteri, loved his
family and the law. Sadly, the
lifelong Bronx resident passed
away April 22 from COVID-19.
He was 69 years old.
“Other than my dad, Phil was
the greatest man I’ve ever met,”
a heartbroken Palminteri said
to the Bronx Times. “He was
a champion of Italian Americans.”
Palminteri said they grew up
together in Belmont on Arthur
Avenue. The duo went to Yankee,
Knicks and Giants games
and unlike most guys whose
heroes were Mickey Mantle or
Rocky Marciano, Foglia’s hero
was President George Washington.
“He was a student of history,”
Palminteri said. “He was such a
patriot.”
Foglia, a Pelham Gardens
resident, impacted many people
over the years. The son of a detective,
he found his path in the
courtroom.
Foglia was an assistant district
attorney in the Bronx
working in appeals and rackets,
where he ultimately was elevated
to deputy chief of economic
crimes and the public corruption
unit. He was an Assistant
United States Attorney under
Rudolph Giuliani assigned to
the Organized Crime and Public
Corruption Strike Force for
over four years. In 1988, he was
appointed Executive Assistant
District Attorney for Investigations
in Queens County.
He was a partner at Culleton,
Marinaccio and Foglia, a White
Plains law fi rm, for 17 years and
was special counsel for the City
of Yonkers for a decade. He then
served as special deputy inspector
general and chief on investigations
for the State of New York
until last summer.
In 1981 he met attorney Michael
Marinaccio at the DA’s offi
ce. The two remained friends
for nearly 40 years. Their families
went on yearly vacations to
places like Virginia Beach, Hershey
Park and the Jersey Shore.
“It’s hard for me to separate
our personal relationship from
our professional one,” he said.
They worked together briefl y
at the DA’s offi ce and in White
Plains for several years. In fact,
they played on the district attorney
softball team. Marinaccio
said that he was one of a kind
and will be missed.
“He was a very good investigator,”
Marinaccio said. “He was
somebody that you were willing
to listen to. He was a leader that
people were willing to follow.”
According to Marinaccio, Foglia
got sick March 22 and spent
28 days on a ventilator in the
hospital. They thought he was
doing better recently, but he
never recovered.
Foglia was particularly
proud of his Italian-American
identity. He was the chief legal
counsel for the Italian American
Defense and Higher Education
Fund and a founding board
member of the Italian American
Museum.
Foglia was married for over
three decades to Jacqueline and
has two sons, Philip, Jr. and
Louis. Louis spoke highly about
his father.
“He was an exceptional father
and loving husband for 44
years,” Louis said. “His demanding
career never left us wanting
for attention. He was a little
league coach for the better part
of two decades. We spent countless
hours together in movie theaters
and at Yankee Stadium.”
Someone needs to stand up for the
local restaurants: Public hearing
set for third-party delivery bills
BY JASON COHEN
A package of legislation that
could drastically alter the restaurant
scene is set for a public
hearing this week.
On April 29, Councilman
Mark Gjonaj, chair of the small
business committee, will present
eight bills to the council.
Chief of Staff Reginald Johnson
explained that four thirdparty
companies, Uber Eats,
DoorDash, Grubhub and Postmates,
control the restaurant
sector in NYC. He noted that
while they are not profi table
business models, they do make
a chunk of change off the restaurants.
“We think that these bills
will go a long way to help level
the playing fi eld,” he said. “The
idea that four companies have
that much control begs the
larger issue that there needs to
be some type of oversight.”
The package includes proposals
to create oversight in
the packaging of food for deliveries,
the disclosure of fees
and commissions to consumers
that are imposed on participating
restaurants, licensing on
third party deliveries, the prohibition
of erroneous telephone
order fees, the display of health
inspection grades online, capping
fees charged by third
party delivery services, prohibition
of third-party delivery
services from limiting the
menu prices restaurants may
charge on food and beverage
orders and businesses to disclose
information about how
gratuities are provided to their
delivery workers in connection
with online orders of goods.
These bills were introduced
in February and the hope is
that they are passed by May
or June, Johnson said. He explained
that not having a cap
on fees hurts businesses, but
especially now during the
COVID crisis.
“We’re not trying to hurt
their Uber Eats and Grubhub
business,” he said. “It is
our point of view that someone
needs to stand up for the local
restaurants.”
This bill would prohibit
third-party food delivery services
from charging restaurants
more than a 10 percent
fee per order for the use of
their service. During a declared
emergency, when a
state of emergency is in effect
in the city and restaurants
are prohibited from offering
food for consumption on-premises,
third-party food delivery
services would be limited to
charging restaurants delivery
fees only, up to a total of 10 percent
per order. All other types
of fees, such as advertising or
processing fees, would be prohibited.
According to Johnson,
there has been support among
council members to pass the
bills, but they also anticipate
opposition and testimony from
the third party delivery companies.
He noted that big companies
like McDonalds and Burger
King can handle the fees, but
the small pizzerias and delis
can’t. Johnson told the Bronx
Times that he always gets calls
from business owners complaining
about the fees, but
during the epidemic they have
increased.
Johnson explained the legislation
has spread nationwide
since it was introduced it. Cities
like Chicago are looking
to cap fees at fi ve percent and
San Francisco ordered a temporary
cap during the crisis.
“The people that need to
be protected here are the restaurant
owners,” Johnson
stressed.
‘He was a champion of Italian
Americans’: COVID-19 claims
Chair of the Small Business Committee
for the City Council, Mark Gjonaj
is holding a public hearing Thursday
where a package of legislation that
could drastically alter the restaurant
scene will be discussed.
File photo
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