A Code of Conduct Complaint lodged against the President of the States of Alderney earlier this year has been dismissed.
Former-States Member Bruce Woodhead lodged the complaint after a heated meeting held in December concerning the employment of Alderney’s now former Chief Executive Theo Liesjer.
Mr Leisjer had been employed as Chief Executive for less than a year when he left the role at the end of last year. He was the fifth Chief Executive Alderney has employed in the past five years.
Mr Leisjer’s departure from his role came immediately after the resignation from the States of the then-Chair of Policy and Finance,Nigel Vooght, which was soon followed by Mr Woodhead’s own resignation from the States.
The States of Alderney’s Press Officer also resigned at the end of last year.
Express understands that Mr Leisjer was ‘sacked’ but that has never been confirmed by the States or by himself.
The meeting at the centre of the Code of Conduct complaint against Wiliam Tate concerned whether or not the States would confirm Mr Leisjer’s ongoing employment at the end of his 12-month probation period.
Mr Woodhead said the President made comments that were “not very pleasant” during that meeting which was attended by ten other people.
“The President was in attendance at the meeting and had quite a lot to say about his opinion of Theo and it wasn’t very pleasant. And it was, in my opinion, indicated that he had a long standing distaste called Theo. The fact that Theo was doing a very good job at the space didn’t seem to matter, and that was where the Code of Conduct came from,” explained Mr Woodhead.
Mr Tate would not comment on the matter when approached by Express yesterday.
“It is not my policy to comment on Code of Conduct complaints irrespective of who they are made against” – William Tate, President of the States of Alderney.
As President of the States of Alderney, Mr Tate usually deals with any Code of Conduct complaints lodged against politicians in the island.
The way the Code is written means that the President would also deal with complaints raised against themselves, however, when Mr Woodhead lodged his complaint earlier this year Mr Tate was off-island so the Vice-President dealt with it.
Mr Woodhead has now raised concerns over how such matters are dealt with as the Vice-President of the States of Alderney, Steve Roberts was also present at the meeting in question with Mr Woodhead suggesting that means he is conflicted.
“In view of this, my Code of Conduct against the President still stands until it is properly dealt with, but I’m told it can’t be dealt with any further. So hence, the reason for wanting to get it into the public domain, because we have an unsatisfactory Code of Conduct Procedure,” he said.