Sausalito City Manager Elaine Forbes, 53, was arrested early Saturday after authorities said she boarded multiple vessels at a local marina, including a 66-foot yacht investigators believe she may have attempted to steal. Forbes had only been in her role as Sausalito city manager for three weeks, having previously served as the Port of San Francisco’s executive director for nine years.
In September, Forbes announced her departure from the Port of San Francisco, stating she was “tired” of managing a large city and was seeking a role with fewer than 280 employees. During a Port Commission meeting, she said, “I don’t want to run a port city anymore. But I sure did these last nine years.” She described her decision to leave as difficult, adding, “I had to pull myself out because I needed to make a change.” In her final speech in December, she expressed gratitude and confidence in the Port's future, stating, "The waterfront is in capable, committed and courageous hands."
The arrest occurred days after the Sausalito city council had voted to grant Forbes a leave of absence. A family spokesperson stated that Forbes was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the yacht incident. The owner of the yacht, Andy Cunningham, reported that Forbes ransacked clothes, consumed food, and drank four bottles of wine on board. "She took all my clothes and tried them on. They were inside out," Cunningham said. "There was a jar of maraschino cherries she dumped into a shoebox. She had drunk a lot of alcohol, four bottles of our wine."
According to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, a missing-person report was filed for Forbes days before the incident. Forbes is currently in custody at the Marin County Jail and is scheduled for arraignment on Tuesday. She is in the midst of a divorce from Angela Calvillo, the clerk of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A family spokesperson suggested that Forbes’s living situation, on a houseboat near the marina, may have contributed to the incident, stating, “She does, in fact, live on a houseboat. In her mental health crisis, she may have believed she was on her houseboat but didn’t recognize it wasn’t hers.”