Jun. 9—Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson's address to the Democratic Women at a luncheon on Thursday carried a strong message of unity, but he didn't shy away from putting Pinova on the spot, calling for accountability from the company following a massive fire at its L Street plant in April.

"I'm not saying this has been cleared by (the Brunswick City Commission), but this is what my administration will be asking for from Pinova. No. 1, I want you to send your C-suite leaders to our community to answer for that derelict property that they call Pinova," Johnson said.

He said it isn't on Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker, whose district includes most of the city of Brunswick, or City Commissioners Felicia Harris, Kendra Rolle, Julie Martin or Johnny Cason to answer questions about Pinova, he said. The company has kept local government leaders in the dark about the facilities operations for a long time.

"It is not for a plant manager to answer those questions," he continued. "It is for the people who own that company to come down and answer to this community about their sleeping at the wheel and not stepping in to the fullness of their responsibilities, and they have to come to our community and answer for that."

Johnson also announced that the city will be forming its own investigative committee, made up primarily of city police and fire personnel, as well as those from jurisdictions that assisted in fighting the fire.

Among other things, the committee will be tasked with creating a timeline of "failures" on the part of Pinova that led to the fire, as well as those that occurred during the fight to extinguish it. Based on that information, Johnson said the committee will also present some recommendations on changes the plant can make to prevent it from happening again.

Further, he said the city will be using those recommendations to fight for stronger regulations on heavy industries in cities and near residential areas in cooperation with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Glynn County's state and federal delegations.

At the state level, Sen. Mike Hodges, R-St. Simons Island, Rep. Buddy DeLoach, R-Townsend, Rep. Rick Townsend, R-St. Simons Island, and Rep. Steven Sainz, R-St. Marys represent Glynn. At the federal level are Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and Rep. Buddy Carter, R-1.

"Out of this situation, what happens nine times of 10 is they let a fire burn in our community and six weeks later no one is asking for anything," Johnson said. "The smoke stack turns back on and nothing is changed."

While Pinova did pay back the fire departments in Brunswick, Glynn County and elsewhere that responded to the fire, Johnson was not moved by the gesture.

"They were federally mandated to do that ... that, to me, would have been back there with the classified ads," Johnson said.

He learned a few things after the fire. One, he said, was that stored in a glorified trailer near where firefighters were fighting the blaze was a chemical that is fatal when inhaled and "negatively reacts to water."

"If you're going to operate a chemical plant inside the footprint of a city, you need to spend millions upon millions of dollars on safe storage of your material," Johnson said. "... We are getting ready for hurricane season. It's not just fire. If a category 5 hurricane comes through and wipes Pinova out, then we have to now ask what chemicals are in our water stream? What chemicals are all over our community because they were not stored in facilities that could withstand a natural disaster?" Johnson said.

Finally, Johnson said he wanted Pinova to establish a fund to pay for better firefighting equipment, neighborhood improvements and home repairs and rebuilding for residential zones they have "negatively affected."

"There is no need, when a chemical plant is in Brunswick, for us to be asking Jacksonville to bring us what we need to put out your fire," Johnson said.

He asked for patience from the public. He strongly believes that government can be a force for good, but not often on a short timescale.

"I'm sure they (Pinova) have a whole host of lawyers, and what I can promise is Brunswick does not ... It'll be me and (City Attorney) Brian Corry fighting the good fight," Johnson said.

He addressed several other topics as well, including the Glynn-Brunswick Land Bank Authority's efforts to demolish 30 to 40 derelict buildings it acquired via unpaid property tax deeds and flip them into marketable properties.

Rather than selling the land to developers, however, he wants to see the land bank become an organization that can acquire, clear and rebuild homes on properties. It'll have to eat the demolition and construction costs.

Further, he wants the rebuilt homes to go to an as-yet-unidentified organization that will get them into the hands of "unbankable" city residents — those who would be unable to get approved for a mortgage for whatever reason.

"There are several ways we can do that. We can let them lease for 10 years and let that count that 10-year lease toward their down payment, then they own the home and they're making payments on the home," he said. "But either way, this third entity that we work on will not be profit-motivated."

His address was underscored by a message he set up early in the luncheon — that regardless of affiliation on the national issues, locally everyone can come together to work on things that can be changed locally.

"The work we do here on the local level, to reach out and touch people on the local level, is the work that is so important," Johnson said.