Alderney States Member Alex Snowdon has been suspended from the island’s government for an additional two weeks after a complaint made by a civil servant was upheld.
Mr Snowdon has already been banned from sitting and voting in the next three States meetings, and suspended from all States business for 30 days.
A 14-day suspension has now been added to the tally.
The latest Code of Conduct complaint against Mr Snowdon was made by James Robinson, the Head of Operations for the States of Alderney.
Mr Robinson alleged Mr Snowdon had breached parts of the States Members Code of Conduct by accusing Mr Robinson of “deliberately misleading and withholding information and of deliberately avoiding public consultation because the public would object”.
The allegations relate to a data centre that may or may not be built in the island in the future.
The Commissioner for Standards said “other potential breaches arose during my investigation” and she found Mr Snowdon guilty of all of them.
Ms McCullough distanced this complaint from the data centre itself saying, “this investigation was not about whether a data centre should be developed in Alderney, or whether Mr Snowdon was entitled to oppose one.
“Nor was it an investigation into Mr Robinson’s conduct. It concerned Mr Snowdon’s conduct and whether there was a proper evidential basis for the allegations he made.”
She found that there was not, and that Mr Snowdon’s ongoing disbelief in the answers he was given to questions about the data centre, unsupported allegations made about Mr Robinson’s professional conduct and motives, and personal remarks he made about Mr Robinson breached parts of of the Code of Conduct.
Ms McCullough has also referenced Mr Snowdon’s failure to apologise in relation to past Code of Conduct breaches.
Mr Snowdon has previously claimed that the Code of Conduct is being weaponised against him and that secrecy around the mooted data centre is leading to distrust in the States among the public in Alderney.
He has previously said the complaints against him are being levied to “gag” him for “raising concerns about this vast project on Alderney”.
Mr Snowdon has also clarified that he has not refused to apologise in relation to the past Code of Conduct decisions, but he will only apologise “after the tender process is postponed pending a proper risk assessment, environmental study, and a fit for purpose feasibility study based on those findings, followed by a full public consultation resulting in a public mandate to proceed”.
“When all that is done, I will willingly apologise for any upset or offence I have caused him, but not before,” he said earlier this month.
The latest suspension is for 14-days – it must run consecutively to the previous 30-day suspension levied, and both durations will be without pay.
“I consider this necessary and proportionate,” wrote Ms McCullough.
“The present breaches repeat conduct for which Mr Snowdon has previously been sanctioned and warned. The sanction reflects that repeated conduct, the seriousness of the present breaches and the need to maintain public confidence in the standards framework.”
