Former Kennebunkport Fire Chief Daniel Brock is Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda’s choice to lead the city’s fire department.

The City Council will vote to confirm the mayor’s nomination at a meeting on Monday, Jan. 5. If the City Council gives its approval, Brock will begin working the next day.

Brock will take over from Police Chief Bill Baker, who has been serving as head of the department since former Chief Gary Littlefield retired in October.

Chuluda said Brock “brings an excellent balance of technical qualifications, management experience and leadership skills, which is exactly what the city is looking for in its next fire chief.”

Brock was chosen out of a pool of 54 applicants, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant. Bryant said applicants underwent two rounds of interviews with panels that included the city’s Public Safety Commission, city councilors, members of the fire department, a representative of the firefighter’s union, the mayor and other city staff.

Brock will assume leadership of a troubled department, which has been under investigation for the past few months after sexual harassment complaints were made by two female firefighters.

Though Littlefield, who headed the department for 10 years, insisted his retirement was not related to the complaints, he announced it abruptly in October, a few weeks after firefighters Lisa Theberge and Kathy Rogers requested to be placed on administrative leave.

In an interview at the time, Theberge described the department as being a “hostile work environment.”

This week, four firefighters were suspended for two weeks, one was suspended for two months, one was reprimanded and one was demoted and suspended for one week.

Brock said he had no comment until after the City Council votes. Brock, who was paid $58,000 in Kennebunkport, will receive $73,931 in Westbrook. Littlefield was earning $76,149 when he retired.

A fire chief for the past 17 years, most recently Kennebunkport’s first fire chief, he served as chief of two Massachusetts towns, Wrentham and Cohasset. He was also captain of the fire department in Southborough, Mass., where he began his career as a call firefighter.

According to Kennebunkport Town Manager Larry Mead, Brock was chief there for three years, until March, and led the consolidation of the town’s four independent fire companies.

“That was a tough job to undertake,” said Mead. “He did a good job of getting us going.”

Baker said he believes Brock will help move the department away from its difficult past.

“I am extremely confident that Chief Brock, with the help of the men and women in this department that are focused on the future, will move this department quickly to a much better place,” he said. “The rest of us will be pitching in to make sure that happens.”

Brock holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Worcester Polytechnical Institute and an associate degree in fire science from Quinsigamond Community College. He also served as a fire instructor at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.