Van Zandt County’s fire marshal presented staffing and pay proposals at the Aug. 7 budget workshop, asking the commissioners to add a full-time environmental specialist, to promote an administrative assistant to chief deputy clerk, and to adopt a certification-pay schedule aligning fire inspector/investigator pay with peace-officer certificate pay.

The fire marshal asked the court to add incremental certificate pay for Texas Commission on Fire Protection qualifications (an "intermediate" level, then advanced and master levels). The marshal proposed annual certificate stipends on a tiered basis (intermediate, advanced, master) and asked the court to create a county policy formally authorizing the certificate pay. The marshal said implementation would add approximately $5,620 annually for five employees if approved as proposed; that figure covers certificate stipends only and does not include other pay or ticket pay on top of certificates.

The marshal also asked to create a full-time environmental specialist position to increase inspection and enforcement capacity and to boost revenue from permitting and maintenance contracts. The court approved two items on the marshal’s list: the environmental specialist position and the promotion of Michelle Bieber from administrative assistant to chief deputy clerk; both approvals were made during the workshop as direction to staff to prepare formal agenda items for the next regular session.

Commissioners declined to approve two proposed part-time fire-inspector positions at this time. The court cited limited office space and the need to reassess staffing after the newly approved hires are in place; the presiding commissioner explicitly recommended re-examining part-time positions next year.

The marshal described multiple public-safety duties beyond inspections, including plan review for battery-energy-storage projects and jail inspections; the marshal said the office’s capacity has been strained and that raising pay and adding staff are steps to increase consistency, retain employees and improve enforcement.

The marshal asked the court to place certificate-pay policy on a regular-session agenda; the judge asked for the draft policy in advance so commissioners could review it before a vote. No final salary ordinance or policy change was adopted at the workshop; staff were instructed to draft the certificate-pay policy and bring the item back for formal consideration.