City commissioners heard “frank” comments from both their police and fire chiefs Tuesday regarding the need for more facilities and greater mental health care services in the community.

Police Chief Tarik Khatib at a Tuesday afternoon study session said the current condition of the police department’s primary work facilities was “inexcusably poor,” and that commissioners need to make a quick decision on moving ahead with a new police headquarters project. A $28 million plan was rejected by voters in November, but commissioners have said they want to still figure out a way to provide new or improved facilities for the department.

“It just needs to be done,” Khatib said.

Just moments later, Fire Chief Mark Bradford told commissioners that the community also is in dire need of having a facility in place where people with a mental health issue can be taken during nighttime, weekend or holiday hours. He said currently the only options for people suffering a mental health event during those times is to go to Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s emergency room, or to be taken to the Douglas County Jail if the situation escalates to that point.

“It is unbelievable,” Bradford said. “It is ridiculous.”

City commissioners said Tuesday they appreciated the “frankness of the speakers today” but didn’t reach any decisions on how to move forward with the police facilities or the mental health issues during the 2016 budget.

Instead, commissioners were divided on how they should move forward on a plan to build a new police headquarters. Commissioner Stuart Boley made a recommendation that an ad hoc committee be appointed to study not only the need for a new police facility but also how changes in police staffing or operations would impact the department’s facility needs.

“This is a difficult issue,” Boley said. “We don’t want to waste time in getting a solution, but we want to get a solution that will work for the community.”

Commissioner Leslie Soden said she supported the idea of an ad hoc committee and said she would like to see county officials involved with the committee since the county operates the jail. But Mayor Jeremy Farmer and Commissioners Mike Amyx and Matthew Herbert all expressed concerns.

Khatib also told commissioners he was not supportive of another committee to study the issue. He said the city has “an obligation as a good employer” to improve the facilities.

Khatib also said he’s firmly convinced a single, new facility — as opposed to smaller, satellite facilities — is the best option for the community. He said he believes voters in November primarily rejected the sales tax issue because they were upset with how the previous commission had set the city’s priorities. Three of those five commissioners are no longer on the commission.

“I don’t know what kicking this issue around more is going to do,” Khatib said.

Commissioners asked Boley to create a formal proposal for what an ad hoc committee would study. They agreed to debate Boley’s proposal at next week’s commission meeting

On the mental health care issue, commissioners said it likely will take more study. Douglas County commissioners are in the process of putting together a committee to study mental health issues as the county considers whether a crisis stabilization center should be built in conjunction with a proposal to expand the Douglas County Jail. Douglas County Commissioner Mike Gaughan attended Tuesday’s study session and said he would like Farmer, Soden and Municipal Court Judge Scott Miller to serve on the committee.

Involving the city’s Municipal Court in the discussion could become important because city commissioners have expressed interest in creating a new “mental health court,” where nonviolent defendants who have a mental illness could go through a separate court system that would be allowed to sentence defendants to treatment options rather than jail time.

Commissioners received an update on creating such a court on Tuesday. Commissioners were told it would be difficult to commit to the project in the 2016 budget — which is being crafted this summer — because it will require significant study. City Attorney Toni Wheeler said the city wants to make sure mental health care providers in the community have enough capacity to serve an influx of clients that could be referred through Municipal Court.

“I think we would have to do quite a bit of study on that,” Wheeler said.

Commissioners plan to have the 2016 budget completed by early August.

A majority of commissioners — Farmer, Herbert and Soden — did make a commitment to provide city funding in 2016 to the WRAP program, which places social workers into Lawrence public schools. The city, county and school district previously had provided funding for the program, but the city stopped funding the program in 2007 after the school district cut its funding because of budgetary concerns.