The Brownwood City Council on Tuesday, July 28, approved a request from the Brownwood Fire Department to reorganize the Fire Marshal’s office.

Since 1995, the Brownwood Fire Marshal has had a law enforcement background.  Buddy Preston has served as City Fire Marshal for the past 18 years and will be retiring in January of 2021.

Two years ago, Preston began looking for persons internally who may be interested in the Marshal position in the city’s fire and police departments.  He was unable to find interested internal applicants in either of the departments due to certified firefighters needing Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and police officers needing Texas Commission of Fire Protection certifications.

In a presentation to City Council, Fire Chief Eric Hicks recommended that the Fire Marshal position move from a law enforcement model to that of a Community Risk Reduction Model which would focus on:

• Fire and life safety education
• Fire inspection and code enforcement
• Fire investigation
• Fire protection engineering and construction document review
• Wildland risk management
• Pre-incident planning
• Public information responsibilities for the fire department

The City of Brownwood Negotiating Team and members of the City of Brownwood Professional Firefighters Association Negotiating Team agreed that this change would be beneficial to the Fire Department.  The financial impact of the change would be $1,200 annually to create the same salary as the Assistant Chief of Operations, according to information provided by the city.  Chief Hicks requested the change be effective immediately thereby changing Fire Marshal Preston’s title by promoting him to Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention.