Bay Area city manager charged for allegedly breaking into 66ft yacht while drinking

A Bay Area city manager will face misdemeanor charges for allegedly breaking into a 66ft yacht while drinking and trying to steal the vessel.

Elaine Forbes, Sausalito’s city manager, was arrested on the morning of 18 July after police received a call for a noise disturbance. Police say Forbes had “apparently broken into” a three-story yacht, where she was consuming alcohol.

Forbes, who previously served as director of the Port of San Francisco, appeared to make a ruckus on the yacht. The boat’s owner, Andy Cunningham, told ABC7 that she found a bottle of maraschino cherries dumped into a shoebox and four empty bottles of wine.

“She had the horn going, the windshield wipers going, the spotlight going,” Capt Bill Aubrey, who called 911 on Forbes, told ABC7. Forbes had been living on a houseboat near the marina where she was arrested, ABC7 reported.

Police initially charged Forbes with felony burglary, and her bail was set at $50,000. But prosecutors have since lessened those to misdemeanor charges for loitering, squatting and petty theft, according to Sgt Adam Schermerhorn, a spokesperson for the Marin county sheriff’s department.

Yacht theft is not common in Marin county, he said.

The Sausalito city council had placed Forbes on leave last week during a closed meeting, according to NBC News. The city council is evaluating her job performance at a meeting today. She was appointed to her position three weeks ago.

“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,” spokesperson Sam Singer said in a widely circulated statement issued on behalf of the Forbes family.