East Lyme — A town employee who is also a selectman is about to finish a 90-day suspension from his job with the sewer department.

The town provided details of the disciplinary action following a Freedom of Information Act request from The Day.

According to documents from the town, Robert C. Wilson, an employee of the sewer department, was placed on unpaid administrative leave April 22.

An agreement worked out among Wilson, the town and the union representing sewer department employees, determined the terms.

The suspension resulted from two incidents in early spring. One was when Wilson was administered a Breathalyzer test after driving a town vehicle from a town building at 12 Roxbury Road to the Field Services Building at Capitol Drive, according to the documents.

The test, which was part of the town's random drug testing program for holders of commercial driver's licenses, found a blood alcohol content of 0.106 percent, which is over the set limit of 0.04 percent for driving a commercial vehicle, the documents state. Wilson was not arrested.

The second incident resulting in discipline was submission of preventive maintenance check lists from an assigned weekend shift "that contained inaccurate information with respect to the work you claim you performed during the weekend," according to the documents.

As part of the agreement, Wilson also was sent to 28 days of mandatory treatment at a residential center.

The suspension applied only to his duties as a town employee, and Wilson has continued to serve as selectman and attended Board of Selectmen meetings during the period.

Wilson said Friday that his wife died five years ago and he has been raising four kids, and he now realizes he had probably been relying on alcohol to get through.

"It was a phenomenally great wakeup call for me as a person, as a father and as an employee, and I took that as a way to make myself better," he said.

Wilson said he completed the treatment program and has been sober since April 6, the date he was tested. He said he never drank at work, but had alcohol in his system that day during a random test.

He said the incidents were within a week of each other and a result of a series of personal issues he was having. He thinks he was trying to find "a way out through alcohol," he said.

"I guess I was in a rut that I didn't know I was in," he said.

He said he's since been able to get himself healthy and on solid footing, and he looks forward to returning to work on July 21. He hopes to put the incidents behind him and continue being a part of the community who has something to give.

His four children, his brothers and their wives, and his girlfriend, Pam, have supported him through this, as well as state Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, First Selectman Mark Nickerson, Selectwoman Rose Ann Hardy and Selectman Kevin Seery, among others, he said.

He said people have recognized that he had an illness, which gave him the chance to get better, and he's grateful to live in a community in the United States that allows people that opportunity.

"I can't say enough about everybody," he said.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich