She has found that Mr Snowdon breached confidentiality, and distorted information, concerning the States’ consideration of the possible location for a data centre in the island.
Mr Snowdon has rejected the finding and a one-day suspension from a States meeting and further claimed that a spate of code of conduct complaints against him were politically motivated, and aimed at stopping him from informing the Alderney public over what is happening with the data centre project.
In particular he claims the often-repeated line from fellow States members that no specific proposal has yet been submitted is misleading, and has called for an independent investigation into the data centre project.
He said that after the States received a proposal for a ‘hyperscale’ data centre – as used by giant online companies – a confidential MoU was signed without public knowledge and States members toured potential sites with the company who had submitted the proposal.
‘The States of Alderney is now undertaking a tender process for data centres on Alderney without any public engagement or input, although they already have a proposal on the table from a data centre company,’ he said.
‘The States have also refused to release the feasibility study into data centres, paid for by the public, which identifies sites in Alderney for major data centres.
‘I have continually raised concerns that all of this is being progressed behind closed doors, without openness and transparency. I think the code of conduct is being used to try to gag me for raising concerns about this vast project on Alderney.’
The complaint, from fellow politician Iain MacFarlane, revolved around an incident in a supermarket where Mr Snowdon was alleged to have told a member of the public that it had been decided that a data centre would be sited in disused Mannez Quarry.
This led to the person immediately texting another Alderney States member Edward Hill to seek confirmation.
Mr Hill said that no such decision had been taken.
Mr Snowdon told the Standards Commissioner that he was acting in the public interest as he believed that there was far too much secrecy surrounding the data centre project.
He also claimed that he had only said that a data centre ‘might’ go on the site, but Dr Melissa McCullough rejected that argument.
‘I prefer the evidence of the member of the public, which is corroborated by the contemporaneous text message that she sent to a States member immediately after the conversation,’ she said.
‘I therefore find that Mr Snowdon communicated to the member of the public that the siting of the data centre at Mannez Quarry had been determined when, in fact, it had not.'
She found that Mr Snowdon had been materially misleading and had broken confidentiality. No decision had been taken.
Dr McCullough said that Mr Snowdon had failed to demonstrate the leadership, honesty and openness expected in public office and that his conduct had ‘undermined’ the integrity of the States’ decision-making process and was capable of undermining the project.
She also noted that this was the second occasion on which Mr Snowdon had been found to have breached the code over the data centre project.
The first time he was directed to offer written apologies to Economic Development Committee chairman Stuart Clark and his committee, but he has not done so.
He has now been ordered to apologise and must serve a further two-day suspension from the States.
‘While my findings in this investigation are based solely on the evidence before me, the similarity between the conduct established in the two investigations demonstrates a continuing pattern of misleading communications concerning the proposed data centre project,’ Dr McCullough added.
‘Taken together, the failure of the earlier remedial sanction to secure compliance and the more serious nature of the present misconduct make a one-day suspension necessary and proportionate.’
The Guernsey Press has been unable to confirm how Mr Snowdon’s suspension from a States meeting would be enforced.
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