A public commenter at the session said organized‑crime figures moved into Tucson after World War II and influenced local development, including early planning and zoning appointments.

“The whole mafia group come in here. And they were welcomed because they brought money,” the resident said, adding that the town’s first planning-and-zoning appointees were chosen with that influence. The speaker named Joseph Bonanno and said three local appointees—identified in the comment as Sanmar Kaufman, Pop Abbott and Warren Shears—were the first zoning commissioners and were later arrested and pardoned, according to the speaker.

The resident said control of the zoning commission allowed those appointees “to control wherever anything was built, who was gonna build it, who made money,” and to restrict or re‑zone property in ways he described as benefiting insiders. He also described violent episodes and bombings linked to that period and said some perpetrators were police officers; in the speaker’s telling, those officers were later caught.

The commenter framed these statements as personal recollection rather than as contemporaneous documentary evidence. “They set up the first planning and zoning. After that, they can control wherever anything was built,” he said.

The remarks were historical recollection and not a formal allegation submitted for investigation in this public record. No formal motions or votes were taken in the meeting related to these claims, and the speaker did not present documentary evidence during the comment. The transcript does not show any municipal official responding with an institutional finding or acknowledgement.

Reporting note: this article summarizes claims made aloud by a single unnamed resident during the public comment portion. The city’s planning department, law enforcement records and court records were not cited in the comment; this article does not assert the correctness of the recollection beyond attributing the statements to the speaker.