New policies in wake of state official frequenting strip clubs

FOX UNDERCOVER (MyFoxBoston.com) -- The state is making changes after a FOX Undercover investigation exposed the secret wild life of a state official.

FOX Undercover found a high-ranking state official who made a six-figure salary spending hours drinking in strip clubs in Rhode Island over the summer while he was on the clock, supposedly working.

Dr. Robert Deblinger was the deputy director at Mass Wildlife, making him the number two man in the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

FOX Undercover watched Deblinger at random over the summer and found him at strip clubs for hours on nine different days. He always visited in the middle of the afternoon and always on a work day.

Sometimes he'd leave Club Fantasies in Providence and head to another Providence strip club, The Cadillac Lounge.

Someone tipped FOX Undercover off about Dr. Deblinger's workday habits after repeatedly spotting his marked Mass Wildlife car parked down the street from Club Fantasies.

After Dr. Deblinger resigned, his boss was left trying to explain how nobody knew what was going on.

“Where did you think he was all those days when he wasn't in the office?” asked FOX Undercover's Mike Beaudet.

“Well I was in regular contact with him and I could always, always reach him,” said Wayne MacCallum, the director of Mass Wildlife.

In the wake of FOX Undercover's investigation, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, which oversees Mass Wildlife reviewed policies on time and attendance as well as vehicle management and travel authorization.

The reviews involved meetings with top managers and identified improvements that could be made to "allow for greater transparency and accountability."

Among them, employees must now record the actual hours they work and document time both in and away from the office.

Not only was Deblinger taking his car out of state, but he also took it home at night even though no employees there are authorized to do that.

Employees who use state vehicles are now being required to sign a new authorized driver form that will go in their personnel file, acknowledging they're up to date on all vehicle and travel policies.

Cox Media Group