She appeared in court Tuesday, where a judge agreed to postpone her arraignment until Wednesday so her public defender could be present in person.
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Prosecutors said they planned to file four misdemeanor charges against Forbes: one count of prowling, two counts of disorderly conduct for lodging without consent and one count of petty theft.
The charges stem from Forbes' arrest early Saturday. Authorities said she broke into at least two yachts, damaging one of them. Investigators also accused her of breaking into a 66-foot vessel called the Lisa Marie and attempting to steal it before she was arrested.
One yacht owner, Andy Cunningham, described the condition of his boat following the alleged break-in.
"I came down here, police met me at the boat, we discovered unbelievable chaos on my boat," Cunningham said. "She took all my clothes and tried them on they were inside out. There was a jar of marchino cherries she dumped into a shoebox," Cunningham said. "She had drunk a lot of alcohol on the boat, about four bottles of our wine."
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A spokesperson for Forbes and her family said she has been going through a divorce from her longtime partner. The spokesperson said she was living on a houseboat near the area where the arrest occurred and may have believed she was on her own boat.
In a statement, the spokesperson said, "she is experiencing a mental health crisis and the best, safest place for her to be is in custody and then, hopefully, a mental healthcare facility."
The Marin County Sheriff's Department said a missing person report had been filed for Forbes on Friday, hours before her arrest.
The Sausalito City Council approved a leave of absence for Forbes on Thursday. She had been in the position for three weeks.
What comes next for Elaine Forbes and Sausalito?
Sausalito officials on Tuesday considered next steps for city operations.
Following a closed-session meeting, City Council members decided to keep Forbes on her leave of absence while they work to bring back former City Manager Chris Zapata as a "temporary advisor" as soon as possible.
Mayor Steven Woodside acknowledged the difficulty of the situation.
"It's not easy, it's not easy but we will get through this." Woodside said. "We want to assure everyone that we are gathering and evaluating all of the facts surrounding this matter."
A review of Forbes' employment contract shows the city has the right to terminate the agreement with or without cause at any time. The contract states that termination could include a misdemeanor conviction involving moral turpitude.
However, sources familiar with the matter told ABC7 News that the city is unlikely to terminate Forbes because of her mental health issues.
David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University, said personnel matters often complicate public discussion of such cases.
"There are a number of personnel issues, conduct issues, not all of those can be fully displayed in the public. And so what the mayor has to think about and what the city council members have to think about is the degree to which they want to have a strategy of going public," McCuan said.
Before joining Sausalito, Forbes led the Port of San Francisco. Reflecting on her departure from that position after nine years, Forbes said, "I'm tired, I want a job with fewer than 280 employees."
Forbes is scheduled to return to court Wednesday for her arraignment.
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