WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Hartford’s incoming town manager says she applied for the position after seeing the way town officials and community members have approached controversial issues including immigration over the last year.

“I really liked that Hartford was not afraid to tackle the tough problems,” Tracy Yarlott-Davis said in a phone interview Wednesday, using the much-debated Welcoming Hartford ordinance, which was approved at Town Meeting in March, as an example. The ordinance prohibits Hartford police and other town officials from sharing a person’s citizenship information with federal authorities.

“There was a lot of honesty … which can be really hard in small towns,” she said.

Yarlott-Davis, 41, was announced as the next town manager during a Selectboard meeting Tuesday night. She will take over from Interim Town Manager John MacLean in mid-February, ending a months-long search for a permanent candidate that started over the summer.

The previous town manager, Brannon Godfrey, announced his resignation in the spring following differences of opinion with the board.

Selectboard Chairman Dan Fraser referred questions on Yarlott-Davis’s contract, including her salary, to the Town Manager’s Office. Paula Nulty, assistant to the town manager, said in an email Wednesday afternoon that she has not received the contract but will make it public when she does.

A California native and Mills College graduate who currently lives in Oakland with her wife and three-year-old son, Yarlott-Davis has spent the past four years working as a city auditor for Berkeley, Calif. Prior to Berkeley, she spent four years as a city auditor in Oakland, Calif., and before that, as an auditor for the state of California.

Yarlott-Davis’s love of local government was sparked by her move from the state level to the city level and being able to spend more time in the community, she said.

“Anything I was working on was affecting me, personally,” Yarlott-Davis said, referencing a parking enforcement issue in Oakland that she helped resolve. “Local government is where it’s at. … I can see change when I make it.”

Yarlott-Davis said she hopes to focus on three areas when she takes the helm in February, starting with developing a policy around a general fund for emergency preparedness. She also hopes to increase her presence and the presence of other town officials in Hartford by holding office hours at local cafes and community meetings to discuss ongoing projects.

Finally, Yarlott-Davis said she would like to focus on a self-assessment process that would allow Hartford to examine where the town stands on issues like economic growth, infrastructure projects and housing availability.

Yarlott-Davis also said she recognizes the importance of her role as the first woman to take up the Hartford town manager title and said she hopes to be an example to younger generations of women.

In an email Wednesday, Fraser wrote that he’s excited for Yarlott-Davis, who was chosen unanimously by both the board and a town manager search committee. He said her background, intelligence and ability to tackle hard work were all reasons for her hire.

“In her interview she made us laugh, she made us cry and she made us realize how essential it is that our next town manager can connect with people: all people, and did just that,” Fraser wrote.

During Tuesday night’s board meeting, members also voted to approve the final proposed $17.6 million operating budget, which will go before voters at Town Meeting on March 4.

They also approved several items to bring in front of voters at Town Meeting, including appropriating $60,000 to put into a climate action fund, which will be created in the future; appropriating $75,600 for the Hartford cemetery and a total of $36,000 for three other cemeteries in Hartford.

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.