I've imported a point marker symbol from a font and applied it to a label. I can't find out how to set the point symbol fill to be non-transparent, ie I need that red line inside the shield to go away.

The text also remains stubbornly non-centered in the symbol no matter what option I seem to tweak. It's already set to scale the symbol in all directions to fit the text, but its not quite making it. Label engine is set to Maplex.
How can I do either of these?