He had been requested to apologise to the Economic Development Committee and its chairman Stuart Clark earlier this year for breaking the politicians’ code of conduct in the ongoing dispute over a potential data centre for the island, which Mr Snowdon strongly opposes.
Mr Snowdon did not appeal the findings of Dr Melissa McCullough after she found that he had disclosed confidential information; improperly interfered with the work of the committee; and used disrespectful language in communications.
Instead, in a letter dated 19 April, he said he had no confidence in the standards process, did not accept the commissioner’s authority, and would not provide the apologies, saying he stood by everything he had said and done and would not retract any of it.
Dr McCullough has now found that this deliberate refusal to comply amounted to a failure to cooperate with the standards process.
She also found that Mr Snowdon had breached confidentiality rules by copying the letter – which referred to the findings, sanctions and the ongoing case – to the president of the States of Alderney, HM Procureur, the States chief executive and the Greffier while the complaint remained live and the appeal period was still open.
In her report, the commissioner stressed that members were entitled to disagree with findings, criticise the system and lodge appeals, but were not free to ignore its outcomes.
‘A member cannot choose which parts of that framework they will observe,’ she said.
She said the case was about more than one member’s conduct, warning that if members could disregard rulings whenever they disagreed with them, ‘the standards regime cannot operate effectively and public confidence in it is inevitably undermined’.
As well as the two-day suspension, Mr Snowdon has been told he must still provide the outstanding apologies, through the Greffier, within seven days.
Dr McCullough has also recommended that the States review the code to create a clearer mechanism for dealing with members who deliberately refuse to comply with sanctions.
The island’s senior politician, Policy & Finance chair Jeannie Cameron, said that while members were entitled to disagree with the conclusions of the commissioner, they could not regard its authority as ‘optional’.
She also said that Mr Snowdon had voted for the standards arrangements when they were introduced last year.
‘An elected member cannot reasonably support the creation of an independent process and then reject its legitimacy when its findings go against him,’ she said.
‘Institutions are tested not when their conclusions are welcomed, but when they are unpopular with those affected. Respecting an independent system only when it produces an agreeable result is not institutional accountability.’
Mr Snowdon has already been found to have breached the code again in relation to revealing information wrongly to the public in relation to the data centre proposal, and been suspended for a day by Dr McCullough.
The further suspension would be likely to see him not involved in States meetings until the end of the year, but it is unclear how any suspension would be enforced.
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