Courtenay City council will have a written Code of Conduct for councillors to abide by.Coun. Jon Ambler brought forward the motion at Monday's council meeting and it was passed unanimously, minus Coun. Ronna-Rae Leonard who was not present.Ambler noted numerous other organizations and governing bodies have their own Codes of Conduct. He pointed out that it is not a law but a "tool" made up of agreed-upon standards of conduct to help council avoid "stepping on land mines" in council meetings."For those of you that are married, you'll understand that running your marriage and not contravening the Criminal Code is actually not enough," said Ambler. "It's a relationship, and how you conduct yourself in that relationship and how business is conducted, adds value and makes a relationship more effective or more positive or more constructive. That's what Codes of Conduct do for you."Coun. Bill Anglin agreed that a set of guidelines for council is a useful tool because sitting on council "is not the easiest job in the world and you often have divided loyalties." He added that he believes it's crucial to council's success for the next three years.Coun. Doug Hillian brought up an incident in the summer when Coun. Murray Presley, Coun. Manno Theos and then Coun. Larry Jangula walked out of a council meeting when a resolution to ask the Comox Valley Regional District to reopen the property search for a homeless shelter was brought forward."I think that a good example of where something like this comes in handy is the previous situation where we had a walkout at this table, and we, in fact, didn't have a barometer against which to assess that action," said Hillian.Jangula, now the mayor, pointed out that registered parliamentarian Eli Mina discussed the 'walkout' at a workshop for newly-elected councillors after the November election."He said very clearly that there's nothing stopping someone from walking out if they so choose," said Jangula. "I'm hoping that never happens, but if it does there's nothing in law preventing that."Coun. Starr Winchester said she didn't think the walkout showed any disrespect and that she thought the Code of Conduct was to ensure councillors respected each other."I'm disappointed to hear Coun. Hillian bring up that particular example because that is certainly not why I thought (Coun. Ambler was) bringing forward a Code of Conduct," said Winchester.Theos noted that Ambler sent an example Code of Conduct to councillors that mentioned councillors not leaving the table, and he was concerned about the agreement would restrict his decisions."That's what worries me about certain wording that may come into this particular resolution, so I'm hoping that the conduct is generic and doesn't limit us from acting on our beliefs and being accountable to the people afterwards," explained Theos.Ambler said the example of the walkout was useful because he believes a Code of Conduct is designed to help guide council with "those tough issues.""We don't need help on the easy things when we're discussing a minor variance; it's going to help us when we deal with those thorny issues," Ambler explained.After the motion was passed, City staff was instructed to research other Codes of Conduct, such as the Comox Valley Regional District's. and report back to council. A Code of Conduct may be borrowed from another organization rather than freshly created for Courtenay council. writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com