It is possible the city may seek to have an election in November to ask for voter approval of a multimillion dollar police headquarters, a trio of commissioners said Monday.

But first commissioners must pick a site for a new police headquarters building, and that process is gaining steam at City Hall.

“Finding the right site is the first debate we have to go through, and that will impact how quickly we may move on an election,” Mayor Mike Amyx said.

Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday are scheduled to have a one-hour, closed-door executive session to discuss real estate matters. Amyx said he hopes to have a list of potential sites to present to the public in May or June. Both he and commissioner Jeremy Farmer are advocating for a process that makes the sites public before a decision is made in order to gain community support.

As currently proposed, a new headquarters building of about 85,000 square feet would sit on 10 to 15 acres of property. Estimates for the project have varied from about $20 million to $30 million.

Previously, city staff members have said either a new sales tax, new property taxes or a mix of the two would be the most likely way to fund the project. If commissioners create a new sales tax for the project, state law would require a citywide vote on the issue.

“We could move pretty quickly on it once we have a site,” City Commissioner Bob Schumm said. “November would be a good time. There will be a lot of people out to vote then.”

The November ballot will include races for U.S. Senate, Kansas Governor and a host of statehouse contests.

Farmer said he also wants to move quickly on the project, and would push hard for a funding plan as part of the upcoming 2015 city budget process. Commissioners will begin debating the 2015 budget this summer.

“The longer we wait on this, the more it is going to cost us,” Farmer said.

But Farmer said he is not yet convinced an election will be needed. He said he would like to examine a way to pay for the project through property taxes, which likely would not legally require the city to hold an election. Farmer said he believes sales taxes are too regressive. He also said he’s concerned a campaign for a police headquarters building may run astray of the central issues: the condition and inefficiencies of the two building currently used as police stations.

“Some people may vote against it because a cop gave them a ticket for going 10 miles over the speed limit,” Farmer said. “Not everybody will judge the issue on the merits.”

In 2012, city staff members estimated a new 0.25 to 0.35 percent sales tax would be needed to pay for a $24 million headquarters building. An estimate on how much property taxes would have to increase to pay for the project haven’t been developed recently.

Schumm said before commissioners delve too deeply into varying tax scenarios, he wants to see some revisions to the project.

“We have one study that says it is a $30 million project,” Schumm said. “I’m concerned about that number. I want to fund it to the right level, but I don’t want to build the Taj Mahal.”

As for a site, in October commissioners received seven proposals from interested property owners. (Full disclosure: One was for a portion of the former Riverfront Mall, which is owned by members of the Simons family, which owns LJWorld.com and the Journal-World.) But city officials long have said they would not limit their search to those seven sites.