Tuesday’s defeat of a proposed sales tax for a $28 million police headquarters has left Lawrence city commissioners staring at a blank slate on how to address police department needs.

But don’t expect it to remain blank for long.

“I’ve told the Friends of the Lawrence Police group that we’re still going to get this done,” said City Commissioner Jeremy Farmer who, if tradition holds, will become the city’s mayor in April.

City commissioners, though, will have to answer a few questions before they can hope to get a headquarters approved. Here are five key questions:

A breakdown of the Nov. 4, 2014 police headquarters sales tax vote, by precinct, with yes votes shaded green and no votes shaded red. For an interactive version of this map, go to LJWorld.com/hqvote

1. What will make East Lawrence happy? It’s clear that East Lawrence voters didn’t like the proposed 0.2 percent sales tax proposal. A look at returns shows the sales tax only carried two precincts east of Iowa Street, both of them tiny in terms of voter numbers — the Kansas University Burge Union precinct had 71 people cast ballots and the Lawrence Jewish Community Center precinct had 345. There were pockets of large-scale opposition in East Lawrence. Ten precincts east of Iowa had opposition levels of 60 percent or more. The largest opposition in the city, by percentage, was at the East Lawrence Recreation center, where 69 percent rejected the sales tax.

2. Will a blue ribbon commission be formed? The election seemed to take a turn when some opponents began noting that Lawrence’s crime numbers and case clearance rates don’t compare favorably with those in other communities that were measured as part of a large benchmark study. Former District Attorney Jerry Harper argued the city needs to conduct a broad study that goes beyond facilities to determine what the police department needs to improve those numbers. Harper has suggested a mix of both outside experts and community stakeholders. In an email to the Journal-World following Tuesday’s results, Harper said he intends to continue lobbying for the creation of a blue ribbon panel. During the campaign, the idea did not get much traction with city officials. But Tuesday’s results may suggest voters weren’t convinced that a new facility is going to produce the desired improvement in the department’s numbers.

3. A sales tax or a property tax? The community seems pretty divided over which type of tax would be best to pay for a headquarters. In interviews with voters on Tuesday, some said they were voting for the sales tax in large part because they feared city officials would raise property taxes if the vote failed. But other voters said they would have been more likely to vote for the project if it were paid for through property taxes. Those voters really don’t like how sales taxes impact those with low incomes, especially because sales tax is charged on food and other necessities. It is impossible to know everything voters were thinking on Tuesday, but a look at the election map seems to indicate that East Lawrence and West Lawrence have far different views on sales taxes.

4. Will the city change sites? Commissioners had proposed building the headquarters on 15 acres near the Kansas Turnpike interchange on McDonald Drive. But the city had to agree to purchase 47 acres to get the 15 acres. The purchase price was set at $2.25 million.

Since the sales tax election failed, the city is no longer obligated to purchase the property from its owner, Hallmark Cards. Some city officials on Tuesday night were still talking up the benefits of the site. Farmer said he’s not sure the site played a major role in the opposition vote. But comments from voters, letters to the editor, and questions at voter forums all indicated a significant number of voters had concerns about the site.

For some, it was the price tag, for others it was the requirement that the city had to buy more land than it needed, and others thought its location along the northern edge of the city wouldn’t serve the city well in the future. But city commissioners, and the police chief, strongly endorsed the site because of its easy access to Iowa Street and Interstate 70. The city rejected two city-owned sites, one near the Douglas County Jail in eastern Lawrence and another near Sixth and Wakarusa in West Lawrence. If a new plan emerges for a police headquarters, commissioners will need to have a clearer picture of what residents think about a location.

5. What will happen in April? Three of the five seats on the City Commission are up for election in April. The three seats currently are held by Commissioners Mike Dever, Terry Riordan, and Bob Schumm. One of the themes of Tuesday evening was that a significant number of people voted against the sales tax because they were unhappy with previous decisions by the commission, particularly the commission’s support of $22.5 million in funding for the Rock Chalk Park sports complex, and the use of a no-bid contract to build a portion of Rock Chalk. Both Dever and Schumm were major supporters of the Rock Chalk Park project. How much angst really exists among voters, and whether it will last into the April elections, may go a long way in determining the make-up of the next commission. That’s important because the current commission has little time to do anything meaningful on the police headquarters issue. The big decisions likely will be made by the next commission.