The city manager of Sausalito has been arrested less than three weeks after starting the job, throwing the city into a period of potential turmoil.
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Elaine Christina Forbes, 53, was booked into the Marin County Jail early Saturday on suspicion of burglary, a felony. Her bail amount was set at $50,000.
Forbes spent the night in jail and remained in custody Sunday morning. The booking log lists her as a San Francisco resident, but she recently moved to a floating home she bought just outside the northern city limit of Sausalito.
The alleged crime happened at about 6:50 a.m. at the Sausalito Yacht Harbor along Humboldt Avenue. Authorities received a call about a burglary and found Forbes inside a yacht belonging to someone else, according to Lt. Domenick Yazzolino of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies handled the preliminary investigation as a courtesy to Sausalito police, Yazzolino said. Forbes said she was having a “bad morning” and told officers to get off her boat, Yazzolino said.
Deputies took Forbes to the county jail. The state penal code section for the offense defines burglary as entering a building or vehicle with the intent to commit a felony.
The arrest follows an unusual closed session of the City Council on Thursday to discuss Forbes. After the meeting, the council issued a short statement announcing that Forbes was on administrative leave, and officials took no questions.
“The Sausalito City Council met in closed session today and approved a leave of absence for Elaine Forbes through September 8,” the statement said. “Assistant City Manager Brandon Phipps is Acting City Manager and will oversee the day-to-day responsibilities of City Manager during this period. In order to respect privacy rights and employment laws, the City will not further discuss this personnel matter.”
Mayor Steven Woodside and Phipps could not be reached on Sunday. The city released a statement saying it would not comment on the allegations because of the ongoing investigation, but called the arrest “a difficult development for our city staff and our community.”
“It is anticipated the City Council will discuss next steps at its upcoming City Council meeting,” it said. The council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
The council appointed Forbes as city manager in May, and she assumed the post on July 1. Her annual salary is $275,000.
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“I feel prepared and deeply called to serve as your city manager,” Forbes said in a letter to the council at the time of her appointment. “Sausalito represents a natural evolution of my career and, in many ways, a homecoming.”
Before joining Sausalito, Forbes was the executive director at the Port of San Francisco for nine years, overseeing a staff of about 270. Forbes was raised in the Bay Area and attended Bahia Vista Elementary School and Davidson Middle School in San Rafael.
Forbes replaced Chris Zapata, who held the job for five years and is now one of Marin’s assistant county executives.
The arrest of Forbes comes as the city faces an array of pressures from without and within.
Like other parts of Marin, the city is managing a surge in state-mandated housing production and development proposals of extraordinary scale. It also is trying to fortify its sea-level defenses; prepare for one November ballot measure and possibly another involving the Marinship maritime sector; and manage ongoing budget uncertainties.
In June, the City Council adopted a $29.4 million placeholder budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year that includes a $1.3 million deficit. Half of that deficit was to accommodate three new staff positions that Forbes requested: community development director, administrative aide and information technology manager.
In February, an auditor found that city officials made $1.37 million in unauthorized expenditures during the prior fiscal year. The spending, which could have been approved by City Council budget adjustments, occurred in 14 funds.
The city ended that fiscal year with revenues exceeding projections by $1.5 million.
During a council meeting on Feb. 17, Woodside said the unauthorized spending was “not acceptable” but apparently not chronic.
“We had three different finance directors during the period, and it’s pretty clear the controls were not as rigid as they should have been,” he said.
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