Sausalito has picked a new city manager.
Elaine Forbes, who has been executive director at the Port of San Francisco for the past nine years, will begin July 1. Her base salary is $275,000.
“I feel prepared and deeply called to serve as your city manager,” Forbes said in a letter to the City Council. “Sausalito represents a natural evolution of my career and, in many ways, a homecoming.”
“It is a community defined by its relationship to water, its strong identity and the deep care its residents bring to shaping its future,” she said.
Mayor Steven Woodside said, “We’re very, very lucky to have someone with her experience and real skill.”
“When you look at our town and the multiple pressures — some from nature, sea-level rise; some from the state to build more housing; our own need to increase revenue so we can meet our as-yet unmet needs for infrastructure — she has a strong background in all of those areas and she understands the bay,” he said.
“And then, just personality-wise, she’s an engaging, clear thinking person who listens well,” he said. “And that’s going to be so important in her role as chief executive for our city.”
Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco, speaks at an event introducing a new ferry service from the East Bay and Marin to Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019. Forbes is flanked by Rick Welts, the Golden State Warriors president, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
As San Francisco’s port director, Forbes led a staff of 270 and was responsible for 7.5 miles of waterfront infrastructure, maritime operations, real estate, public access and stewardship of public assets. Among the planning and projects that she oversaw were efforts addressing climate and seismic risk, including the Embarcadero Seawall Program and a $425 million resilience bond.
“The Port of San Francisco is a complex enterprise agency,” she wrote to the council, “requiring the integration of finance, operations, planning and public agency leadership to deliver meaningful results.”
Forbes said she hopes to be an engaged partner with city staff and the community to proactively address the city’s challenges, especially those posed by sea-level rise.
“At the Port, I learned that the success of any organization is grounded first and foremost in its people,” she said. “Without that shared ownership, it is not sustainable. I also learned that leadership engagement is essential — particularly in resource-constrained environments — because without it, even the best intentions cannot be realized.”
“The challenges of sea level rise and infrastructure investment cannot be addressed through reactive decision-making,” Forbes said. “They require a clear framework, sustained partnerships, and disciplined execution over time.”
Forbes was raised in the Bay Area and attended Bahia Vista Elementary School and Davidson Middle School in San Rafael. Earlier in her career she worked with nonprofit land use and economic development organizations. She has a master’s degree in urban planning from Mills College in Oakland.
Forbes said she will be working with the outgoing city manager, Chris Zapata, to complete a smooth transition. Zapata has been city manager since 2021.
On Thursday, Marin County announced that Zapata will be one of three assistant county executives to lead a new executive structure.