WESTBROOK – With the dismissal of Fire Chief Daniel Brock Monday, new Mayor Colleen Hilton has initiated a top-to-bottom overhaul of the troubled Westbrook Fire Department.

Hilton said this week she planned to shut down a fire station, hire a management consultant to run the department and look at creating a regional fire and rescue service with neighboring communities. Officials from those towns and cities said this week that’s a plan they’d also be interested in pursuing.

“I believe we need to restructure this department and immediately implement changes to the leadership structure,” Hilton said Monday night in her inauguration speech.

Brock was one of three department heads whom Hilton did not reappoint at the inauguration Monday. In Westbrook’s charter, the mayor is charged with appointing 16 city positions – one of the specifications of a strong-mayor form of government.

To take the fire chief’s place, Hilton has begun searching for a management consultant to lead the department through a 12-month transition period. In the mean time, Police Chief Bill Baker will take over from Brock, who was let go this week.

Brock was hired a year ago, following the abrupt retirement of former Chief Gary Littlefield, who left shortly after female firefighters Kathy Rogers and Lisa Theberge filed sexual harassment claims with the city and went on administrative leave.

Since then, the department has undergone changes in leadership, an intensive harassment training program was implemented and disciplinary actions were handed out. In October, Rogers and Theberge filed a lawsuit against the city in Cumberland County Superior Court. They remain on paid leave.

Rogers has also settled twice already with the city following favorable decisions from the Maine Human Rights Commission regarding previous harassment claims.

During her campaign for mayor, Hilton expressed her frustration with the long-running issues in the fire department and stressed her determination to resolve them.

“I’m extremely concerned with the mounting legal bills on this protracted issue. I have to believe that with the right leadership, we can resolve the culture and climate issues that have prolonged this matter,” she said in October.

Wasting no time making good on her campaign promises, Hilton laid out her plans this week.

“I have a longer-term vision for the fire department that we’re going to explore,” Hilton said Tuesday.

Hilton said she’d like to shut down the Mechanic Street fire station, where the department’s call company is based, “as soon as possible.”

She said the change would help integrate the full-time firefighters and call firefighters into “a cohesive team” and would also free up that building for the city to use in other ways, such as for a maintenance garage or storage.

She said she’s also been talking to neighboring communities to explore the possibility of regionalizing fire and rescue services. Though the Westbrook fire department has had more than its fair share of personnel issues, she said the department also has a lot to offer other communities.

“We’ve got some real strengths,” she said, listing the expertise of the firefighters, the department’s equipment and the public safety dispatchers among them.

Portland City Manager Joe Gray said he hasn’t discussed sharing fire services with Westbrook in more than five years, but would be interested in bringing that discussion to the table.

“We certainly would be open to it,” he said Tuesday.

South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey said there’s already a lot cooperation among the municipalities of greater Portland and “any furthering of the relationship is a plus.”

The Scarborough Fire Department already works closely with Gorham’s, and Town Manager Tom Hall said he’d be happy to see Westbrook join that partnership, especially considering the common border between the town and city.

“We’d be open and very receptive,” Hall said about pursuing more regional efforts. “Emergencies don’t respect political boundaries.”

But before those major changes start taking place, the Westbrook department will experience some more immediate ones – the first being Baker taking over from Brock.

This will be the second time Baker, a proven leader on the police side of the public safety building, fills in as head of the fire department. He did the same thing after Littlefield retired and before Brock was hired last January.

Brock came to Westbrook from Kennebunkport, which he left after three years as fire chief because his contract wasn’t renewed.

“It was just a decision that the town wanted to go in a different direction,” Kennebunkport Town Manager Larry Mead said this week.

When reached Tuesday, Brock declined to comment on the mayor’s decision not to reappoint him.

Baker defended Brock Monday, calling him an “exceptionally honest and decent guy.” The two chiefs grew up as neighbors in Southborough, Mass., and later, Baker served as police chief there while Brock’s father was fire chief.

However, Baker said, Brock “could never have succeeded” coming in from the outside and fixing the problems of the Westbrook Fire Department. But Baker’s willing to give it his best shot.

“I’m going to take the bull by the horns,” he said. “The status quo is out the door.”

Though Baker doesn’t know just what shape the department will take during the next year, he commended Hilton for her dedication to making changes.

“I think what’s important is that this mayor is clearly committed to a dramatic shift in direction,” he said.

In her inauguration speech, Hilton said that changes in departmental structure, staffing, policies, procedures and operations will all be considered in an effort “to reinvent the Westbrook Fire and Rescue Department into an organization that will restore pride and confidence into this department, for both its employees and the public at large.”

One effort initiated by the City Council last year is already under way, but may change in light of Hilton’s recent decisions.

Last June, the council approved spending $20,000 for harassment training by the Portland-based Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence.

For the first phase of that training, which wrapped up in the fall, the center’s executive director, Steve Wessler, interviewed members of the department at all levels and assessed the problems facing them. In his recommendations moving forward, Wessler pointed to a need for strong leadership and to develop Brock’s leadership and communication skills.

The City Council was scheduled to approve another $20,000 for the second phase of Wessler’s training at a meeting Monday. However, City Administrator Jerre Bryant said that might be pushed off, because the recommendations were based on the situation in the department before Hilton’s changes.

Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton puts her left hand on a Bible held by her husband, William Hilton, as she’s sworn into office by City Clerk Lynda Adams at the city’s inauguration ceremonies Monday. (Staff photo by Brandon McKenney)