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There's no doubt Marna Hanneman has the resume to be La Conner's next mayor.

Having served nearly a decade on the La Conner Planning Commission, a key advisory panel focused on land use and historic preservation, Hanneman comes with relevant academic and professional credentials.

She holds a degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and has enjoyed wide-ranging careers in marketing, property management and insurance.

And not to be overlooked is her long managerial stint with the oldest union print shop in Seattle.

Yet it is her certification as a yoga instructor that perhaps best qualifies Hanneman to succeed four-term mayor Ramon Hayes.

After all, more and more, public service – like yoga – requires flexibility, patience, balance and compassion in equal measure.

Hanneman, who filed unopposed last spring for the opening, vows to emphasize communication, collaboration and consensus while in office. She promises to take no shortcuts.

"I'll do the best I can and my hope is we can all work together as much as possible," Hanneman told the Weekly News.

She has already begun shadowing Hayes, town council members and town hall staff. She attended their summer retreat and joined a recent meeting of Town and Port of Skagit officials.

Hayes and other Town leaders have praised Hanneman for her diligence in studying all facets of town government in a quest to hit the ground running.

"It's important," Hayes explained, "to have continuity and stability. Marna has taken the initiative and we've been glad to provide her with access. And it really helps that she has nine years of experience on the planning commission."

Councilmember Rick Dole, who worked with Hanneman on both the planning board and the First-on-First early COVID-19 downtown shopping campaign, struck a similar tone.

"My thoughts on Marna," said Dole, "are that she is wickedly intelligent, joyful, confident and 100% believes in bringing La Conner together and sees herself as being of service to the town."

Hanneman embraced community service almost immediately after she and her husband, Leroy, an engineer, career executive and advisor to various government, commercial and academic entities, moved to La Conner and built their home on South Third Street 15 years ago.

When it was suggested by a friend that she apply for a vacancy on the planning commission, never a position for the feint of heart, Hanneman threw caution to the wind, interviewed and secured the appointment.

In the years since, despite occasional project proposals that have sparked controversy – the Maple Field housing development and Center Street condominium plan among the most recent – Hanneman insists the terrain here can still be mostly defined as common ground.

"We all love this community," she said. "We're all neighbors. We've all chosen to live here.

"The Tom Robbins Day celebration," she added, "is a great example. That was La Conner at its best. It was a day when people celebrated joy and all those things that are possible when we work together."

An avid walker, Hanneman has familiarized herself step-by-step with every square inch of town. She strikes up conversations with those she encounters in neighborhoods, the business district and on the waterfront boardwalk, which she cites as an example of what cooperative interaction can achieve.

"The boardwalk," said Hanneman, "has changed the complexion of the town in a very good way."

Hanneman remains optimistic that community engagement, curbed by isolation imposed by the pandemic, can make a comeback and re-emerge as a force fostering expanded public input and insight.

Her approach, she said, will be to listen intently and seriously contemplate options prior to taking or recommending specific action. Hanneman inferred that adopting a "be sure you're right, then go ahead" mindset is crucial to avoiding pratfalls associated with crisis management.

"It's okay, sometimes, to pause and take a breath," she said, invoking –consciously or not – a yoga parallel.

To encourage dialogue with residents, Hanneman plans to distribute door hangers around town this fall.

Hanneman anticipates robust discussions related to affordable housing, preservation of La Conner's unique quality of life and funding strategies for necessary major infrastructure improvements, most notably a state-mandated upgrade of the community's nearly half-century old wastewater treatment plant."

"We have to address housing," she said, acknowledging it has been an enduring challenge here given that La Conner is constrained geographically by farmland and the Swinomish Channel.

"I remember when John Doyle was town administrator," Hanneman recalled, "and that he told us we could support a population of 1,200 people. Right now, we're at about 1,000, which is quite a jump from the population of around 700 that was here 20 years ago or so."

Hanneman expects the needle to finally move on solutions to the former Moore-Clark property on the south waterfront. The Town has a planning grant for the underutilized area, which includes the vacant and dilapidated warehouse building that sits partially on south First Street and has been completely cordoned off as a public safety measure.

She recognizes the challenge of following in the footsteps of La Conner's longest serving mayor.

"I have big shoes to fill," Hanneman acknowledged, "but we have great people in this town and I'm committed to being transparent and serving the town for the long-term and not just in the short-term."