First came a failed sales tax vote in November. Then came an April election that brought three new members to the Lawrence City Commission. Now, city leaders are rethinking the notion that a new, multimillion-dollar police headquarters must be located in a brand new building.

A majority of city commissioners now say they want to consider retrofitting an existing building to meet the needs of the seriously cramped police department.

Matthew Herbert

Leslie Soden

Jeremy Farmer

“I think that definitely is going to be worth our time to look at,” Matthew Herbert, one of the new commissioners, said last week.

Full disclosure: Members of the Simons family, which owns the Journal-World and LJWorld.com, have said they intend to propose that the city buy part of their former Riverfront mall building in downtown Lawrence to use as a police headquarters. Other property owners with large spaces available across the city may make proposals as well, if city commissioners decide they want to look at the retrofit option.

Leslie Soden, another of the three commissioners elected in April, said she thinks the failed November vote was a sign that the public wants other options reviewed.

“It is like they shot for the moon and that vote failed,” Soden said of the November plan, which called for a $28 million new facility to be built on a large lot near the Kansas Turnpike.

Soden said she believes retrofitting an existing building may be more cost effective than building new. Given the uncertainty about how much state taxes might increase, the city has to be realistic about how much it can spend on the police project, she said.

“Cost is going to be a big issue with this,” Soden said. “Past city commissions have already dedicated a lot of money to other projects. That has made this project more challenging.”

The idea of using an existing building will face opposition. Michelle Derusseau, a leader of the previous Vote Yes campaign for the police headquarters sales tax, recently told city commissioners to be wary of investing in buildings that already have more than 20 years of age on them, and to be mindful of the special design needs of a police headquarters building that must function during public disasters and be open every day of the year.

Mayor Jeremy Farmer said he wants to keep all options open. He said that does include the idea of a retrofitted building.

“For us to squelch conversation about an idea because we think we know what is best based on some previous recommendations would be short-sighted of us at this point,” Farmer said.

Lawrence City Commissioner Stuart Boley

Commissioner Stuart Boley said a retrofitted building was a consideration for him as well.

“We have to meet the needs of the community and the police department,” Boley said. “If that is in a retrofit, that may be where we are headed. The bottom-line is a big deal.”

A timeline for decisions about the headquarters project remains uncertain. Farmer said he thought it would be unwise to set a timetable for the project because he doesn’t want the public to “feel like we are trying to ram something through.”

The city’s budget process for 2016 is scheduled to be completed in late July or early August. Commissioners have discussed the idea of paying for a new headquarters without raising taxes. That could require cuts to other departments’ budgets, with some perhaps beginning in 2016.

Soden said she didn’t see how the commission would be in a position to know what type of facility it wants to build by the end of July. She will advocate for the city to figure out its top few options and have price estimates developed for the various proposals, she said.

“I think it is going to take us a few months to get our options figured out,” Soden said.

Herbert said he was optimistic the city would be able to figure out a way to fit a headquarters project into the 2016 budget. But Herbert also said the commission needs to be prepared to make changes to what’s previously been proposed.

“What I’ve told (police) Chief (Tarik) Khatib is that I support you and what you are asking for in your space and training needs, but the one thing you need to be flexible on is location,” Herbert said. “I would be really bad at my job if I watched that vote happen in November and then presented the exact same thing.”