How do taxpayers decide whether to vote for a new tax presented to you on a ballot? The most important issue is probably the purpose of the tax. The second key factor is likely how much it will personally cost the taxpayer.

The odds are very good that if taxpayers are comfortable with the answers to those two questions, they will vote for the tax. But do they check to see if the measure includes a citizens’ oversight committee? If it doesn’t, would it stop them from voting for the measure?

COCs are placed on ballots to assure taxpayers that ordinary citizens will be watching to see if tax dollars are spent according to the ballot measure’s stated purpose. Voters need to understand how this works in practice.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the way that most oversight committees actually function is that they are merely rubber stamps. Usually, they simply approve the outside auditors’ report, which is required for tax measures by law. So why do local governments take up the valuable space allotted to them in the 75-word ballot description to promise the protection of a COC? We are concerned that often they are put there as a cynical sop or empty promise to make taxpayers feel like the money will be properly spent.

It turns out that there are two structural flaws with such committees. First, their written mandates generally limit their oversight powers to just reviewing the financials used for the professional auditors’ report and/or the report itself. Second, it is very difficult to find citizens with the proper expertise who are willing to volunteer their time to go beyond financials to search for waste and “mission creep.”

Of course, if a COC’s authority doesn’t include the ability to inquire beyond the reported financial information, then the second problem becomes irrelevant. A computer could check the numbers instead.

This isn’t to say that government agencies are necessarily engaged in the misuse of funds when a weak oversight committee is rubber-stamping agency spending. However, unsupervised spending can lead to a gradual shift in objectives.

The point is that government agencies dress up ballot initiatives to induce voters into approving the tax. When they include a COC, in our opinion, it’s almost always a sham.

It’s only natural for agencies to resist oversight and give themselves powers to sidestep controls. We have heard stories about several instances in Marin where COC members who sought to broadly investigate agency operations were later told not to reapply by the agency’s board of directors.

Unless oversight committees are given authority to question the substantive use of the money by looking at the taxing authority’s work programs and projects, these committees are irrelevant and should be eliminated from tax ballot measures.

One example here in Marin where a COC was given broader authority was in the creation of the Marin Wildfire Protection Authority.

The record of that committee shows that, in the first two years of its existence, it reviewed and made substantive recommendations in areas beyond the financials. Some of the suggestions related to the appropriateness (or not) of the work programs, internal controls, transparency, accountability and areas of need.

Most of the recommendations were adopted by the agency. However, because few committee members had the time or expertise to investigate such a wide area, the COC itself chose to reduce its own scope and powers. It now focuses mostly on reviewing staff-prepared financials and the financial implications of some of the work projects. Even with this reduced workload, the agency is having trouble recruiting — for months it’s been operating with only six out of the required nine members. It’s human nature to want to take on less work, especially if you’re not being paid.

So unless future COCs have a written mandate to go beyond just the numbers and are able to find members who want to be real watchdogs, we should stop the deception. Citizens’ oversight committees are illusory promises. They should be left off the language of future ballot measures.

Ron Arlas is the former mayor of Larkspur. Fairfax’s Stephen Keese is a former member of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority Community Oversight Committee.