{"id":5094,"date":"2026-07-21T18:10:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5094"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:10:02","slug":"sausalitos-new-city-manager-charged-in-waterfront-break-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5094","title":{"rendered":"Sausalito’s new city manager charged in waterfront break-in"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The city manager of Sausalito was charged with a four-count criminal complaint Monday for an alleged break-in on the waterfront, but she avoided a felony case.<\/p>\n

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Elaine Forbes, 53, is scheduled to appear for arraignment on Tuesday morning in Marin County Superior Court. The misdemeanor charges include one count of prowling, two counts of unauthorized lodging involving two different boats and one count of petty theft of personal property.<\/p>\n

Forbes remains in custody at the Marin County Jail.<\/p>\n

Forbes, who lives in a floating home in unincorporated Sausalito, was arrested early Saturday morning after she was found inside a yacht at a different marina, the Sausalito Yacht Harbor.<\/p>\n

The arrest happened two days after the\u00a0Sausalito City Council met in closed session and approved a two-month leave of absence for her.<\/p>\n

Forbes, the former director of the Port of San Francisco for nine years, started the Sausalito job on July 1.<\/p>\n

Both the city and Forbes\u2019 family hired crisis communications consultants after the arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts are with Elaine and her family,\u201d the city said Monday. \u201cShe remains on a leave of absence while we evaluate the facts surrounding the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The family\u2019s statement said: \u201cElaine Forbes 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask that no one rush to judgment based on limited information. Elaine is experiencing a mental health crisis,\u201d it said. \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

More details have emerged about the events leading to her arrest.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a former coworker concerned about Forbes filed a missing persons report with the Marin County Sheriff\u2019s Office. The alleged burglary happened the following morning.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Bill Aubrey, the captain of several vessels at the Sausalito Yacht Harbor, said he found Forbes aboard a client\u2019s 75-foot cabin cruiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a vessel that I keep in the same harbor and I happened to be on board over the weekend,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when the horn was going off at 5:30, 5:40 in the morning, I recognized the sound. I got up and actually rode a bicycle over there, and that\u2019s when I discovered that someone was inside the vessel \u2014 in the wheelhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though she had locked all the doors, I was still able to get in and I confronted her,\u201d Aubrey said. \u201cBasically, I told her to get the heck off the boat, and then she looked at me and had a smile on her face, almost like she didn\u2019t realize that anything was out of the ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you sit down and relax for a few minutes?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAt that point, I called 911, and the Sausalito Police Department was there in less than a minute and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officer, I don\u2019t recall his name, came on board, and he asked her, \u2018Are you Elaine?\u2019 And she said yes. And he said, \u2018We\u2019ve been looking for you,\u2019\u201d Aubrey said.<\/p>\n

Read more Teen boys accused of robbing online sellers at gunpoint in San Jose<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThen he asked if I could be excused because he wanted to speak to her. I figured everything was safe and sound with him on board and with her demeanor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sausalito police called the sheriff\u2019s office and asked it to take over as a \u201ccourtesy report,\u201d Marin County sheriff\u2019s Sgt. Adam Schermerhorn said Monday.<\/p>\n

Forbes, who was wearing navy blue shorts and a gray T-shirt, was given a blanket to warm up, Aubrey said. She was escorted to a patrol car, where questioning continued.<\/p>\n

For more than two hours, police searched the cabin cruiser \u201cand looked at everything she may have touched,\u201d he said. They took two empty liquor bottles \u2013 Grey Goose vodka and tequila. Some glasses were on the countertop.<\/p>\n

Forbes apparently told officers she also had been aboard a neighboring boat, Aubrey said.<\/p>\n

Police contacted the owner, went aboard, but found \u201cnothing was disturbed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forbes was taken to the Marin County Jail and booked on suspicion of burglary, a felony. The bail amount was set at $50,000.<\/p>\n

As word of the arrest spread, calls for support emerged. Positive People for Sausalito, a community group, sent out an email in support of Forbes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are terribly upset by this,\u201d it said.\u00a0\u201cMs. Forbes\u2019 background as head of the Port of San Francisco is an exciting and promising background for Sausalito.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a difficult personal situation for her and a real setback for the city,\u201d it said. \u201cThe investigation is ongoing, and out of respect for that process and privacy, we won\u2019t speculate about how it may proceed or resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diane Oshima, who worked under Forbes for a decade at the Port of San Francisco, was baffled by the arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really have nothing to compare it to because it is counter to my experience and my personal relationship with Elaine,\u201d she said. \u201cI was very excited for Sausalito to have her as a city manager because her specific experience and career as a public government official seemed to line up so well with the needs and the issues Sausalito faced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people can find compassion to help resolve the situation because we all are vulnerable to some of these episodes,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a new event that I never would have expected to have to address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Taylor Farms remains focus of FDA investigation, despite false positive<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The misdemeanor charges include one count of prowling, two counts of unauthorized lodging involving two different boats and one count of petty theft of personal property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSausalito’s new city manager charged in waterfront break-in - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5094\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sausalito’s new city manager charged in waterfront break-in - 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