More meetings about the need for a police headquarters are on tap, and perhaps a blue-ribbon commission also may be in store for the multimillion-dollar topic.

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday agreed to find an out-of-town consultant to facilitate a goal-setting session for the new commission, which had three new members begin serving last week. A discussion about public safety is among the six topics commissioners have agreed to discuss at the session.

But two of the new commissioners — top vote-winner Leslie Soden and second-place finisher Stuart Boley — asked commissioners to also form a new “blue-ribbon commission” that will take a broad look at police issues that go well beyond facility needs.

“We need to build something for the next 20 years, not just for today,” Boley said as he asked the commission to consider a blue-ribbon commission. “I need to learn more before I can make decisions on this issue.”

The other three commissioners stopped short of saying they were ready to form a blue-ribbon commission to study the topic. They noted that the police department and city-hired consultants have assembled a lot of information on the need for a new police headquarters.

“I’m a little confused about what level of expertise the general community is going to have on what the needs of law enforcement will be in 30 years,” said newly elected commissioner Matthew Herbert.

Soden, though, said much of the information compiled by the city has focused on facilities. She said she would want a blue-ribbon commission to take a more “global view” of police department needs, including how the police department can play a role in the community’s mental health care system.

Mayor Jeremy Farmer suggested that the City Commission begin by having a formal goal-setting session. City commissioners agreed to direct staff members to look for a consultant that could facilitate a one- to two-day retreat where commissioners would discuss goals they have for the commission and the community. Farmer suggested that the consultant be someone who doesn’t have any ties to the community or the commission. He said he hopes a goal-setting session can be scheduled in the next three to four weeks so it can be part of the city’s process in creating a 2016 budget.

In addition to public safety issues, the goal-setting session also would include discussions about: mental health care issues; affordable housing; sidewalks, bike paths and other forms of nonmotorized transportation; infrastructure issues; and economic development.

City Commissioner Mike Amyx said he thought it was important that the commission have a discussion about how it intends to use economic development incentives in the future.

In other news, commissioners:

• Preliminarily approved several commissioner appointments to various boards and task forces. The appointments, which will be finalized next week, included: Amyx will continue to serve on the Horizon 2020 Steering Committee, the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center Board of Directors, and the Ninth Street Corridor Committee. Farmer will serve on the Destination Management Inc. Board, the Public Incentives Review Committee, and the Economic Development Council of Lawrence & Douglas County; Soden will serve on the Joint Economic Development Council, the Public Incentives Review Committee, and the Bioscience and Technology Business Center Board. Boley and Herbert both will serve on the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is responsible for regional transportation planning issues.

• Unanimously supported sending a letter of support for a grant application that would allow for plaques and other marker signs to be installed around the community to commemorate the time that late American poet Langston Hughes spent growing up in Lawrence. The approximately $60,000 grant application now will be considered by the Douglas County Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant Program in the coming days.