Sausalito’s newly appointed city manager was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of felony burglary after Marin County sheriff’s deputies, called to investigate a noise complaint, found her on a yacht that authorities said was not hers.
Elaine Forbes told deputies she was having “a bad morning” and repeatedly asserted that the boat belonged to her while demanding that officers leave, the Marin Independent Journal reported.
Forbes, 53, was taken into custody less than three weeks after she began serving as Sausalito’s chief administrative officer.
Her arrest followed another sudden development at City Hall: two days earlier, the Sausalito City Council placed Forbes on administrative leave after meeting in closed session.
Deputies were dispatched to the Sausalito Yacht Harbor shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday. There, authorities said, they found Forbes aboard a vessel she did not have permission to enter.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Forbes initially claimed ownership of the yacht. Investigators later reached the actual owner, who told them Forbes was not authorized to be on board.
Forbes was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of felony burglary.
Her bail was set at $50,000.
Authorities have not released additional details about the alleged burglary or explained why the City Council placed Forbes on leave Thursday.
In a statement following the arrest, the City of Sausalito called it “a difficult development for our City staff and our community” and said it would not comment further while the investigation remains active.
The City Council is expected to address the matter at its regular meeting Tuesday.
Forbes was appointed Sausalito’s city manager in May after announcing in September that she would step down as executive director of the Port of San Francisco, where she served for nine years.
She became Port director in 2016 after serving as interim director and was, at the time, one of the few women in the country leading a major US port.
During her tenure, she oversaw a staff of about 270 and managed major waterfront initiatives, including seawall reinforcement and planning efforts related to sea-level rise along the Embarcadero.
In her final year at the Port, Forbes was a public face of the Fisherman’s Wharf Forward initiative, which proposed replacing the shuttered Alioto’s Restaurant building with a public plaza overlooking the wharf’s fishing fleet.
Before leading the Port, Forbes served as its chief financial officer and deputy director for finance and administration.
She previously held public-sector roles in San Francisco and Oakland, including serving as finance director for the San Francisco Planning Department, and worked in nonprofit land-use and economic-development organizations.
She began her role as Sausalito city manager on July 1 with an annual salary of $275,000.
A spokesperson for Forbes told The Post that she “has devoted much of her life to public service and is widely respected by the many people who have worked with her over the years.”
“Elaine is experiencing a mental health crisis. As the facts become clearer and Elaine obtains legal and healthcare counsel in the coming hours and days, we hope people will respond with compassion, patience and respect for her and her family during an extraordinarily difficult time,” the spokesperson added.
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