A good communicator who is community-minded.

Someone familiar — but not too cozy — with local culture.

And a person comfortable with talking to the public when leadership is called for.

Those are some of the qualities members of the Honolulu Police Commission seek in their next police chief.

Members of the commission were told Friday that a contract had been reached with Pennsylvania-based EB Jacobs as the consulting firm to help find the next chief. The contract was finalized Thursday, commission Executive Director Dan Lawrence said.

Immediately after the announcement, the four commissioners present held an hourlong teleconference with EB Jacobs’ executives, offering a look into what they want and expect from the next chief.

The commission received 34 qualified applicants for the job, which pays $191,184 annually.

It’s taken more than two months to select a consultant, partly because the original contract awardee backed out near the end of negotiations in June.

As a result of the delays, the commission’s original timetable of selecting a chief by July has been pushed back until October at the earliest.

Commission Chairman Max Sword said EB Jacobs is being paid $75,000. Additionally, a local psychologist will be paid about $24,000 to provide input, he said.

Former Police Chief Louis Kealoha retired effective March 1, several months after receiving a letter informing him that he is a target of a federal corruption case.

An EB Jacobs representative will be in Honolulu in mid-August for three days to talk to various other interested parties about what they want in the next chief, said Janet Echemendia, EB Jacobs president.

The input EB Jacobs receives is expected to be incorporated into a preliminary test to be administered to all 34 candidates. After the commission pares down its list, the remaining candidates will be tested further at an assessment center.

A final list will then be made public, and the finalists will be interviewed by the commissioners.

Commissioner Eddie Flores Jr. told EB Jacobs officials the ideal candidate “must have some kind of connection with Hawaii, must understand our culture, our diversity. … It’s very hard just to come in and blend in with our society.”

Commissioner Luella Costales emphasized the need for the chief to be community-oriented. “Really being able to understand and be a part of the community, be seen as part of the community rather than those who are enforcing the law,” she said.

HPD’s community policing teams have been effective in fostering relations between officers and the public, especially among high schoolers, Costales said. She would like the new chief to do more of those types of programs. HPD “has a ways to go” in its efforts to build trust in the communities, she said.

Costales said building trust within HPD and among the community needs to be the top priority. It’s critical for the new chief “to understand the situation that they’re stepping in, and what happened prior to that person coming on, because there is going to be baggage that needs to be addressed,” she said. “Their knowledge of the history of what’s been going on the last one, two years is going to be really important.”

Commissioner Steven Levinson said there is a tendency in Hawaii for companies and government agencies to, “everything else being equal,” select someone who is either from here or has lived here a long time. That’s “a double-edged sword,” he said.

There is “some considerable feeling” in the community that “ideally, one would want an outsider to be the new police chief in order to ‘clean house,’” Levinson said. “I’m not suggesting that this is a universal perception at all, but at least it’s real.”

So while there are good reasons to pick someone from within the department, “there are also reasons for valuing someone from outside who is a quick learner and can grasp a very complicated dynamic and bring a new perspective to it,” Levinson said.

Flores said he disagrees with that perception, noting that crime has decreased in recent years while complaints against HPD have been about the same. “There may have been a little problem here with the former chief, but basically the department has been well run,” he said.

Sword, the chairman, said he wants a chief who is willing to go out in public in times of crisis or other situations that call for it.

He thought Kealoha “did a decent job in terms of the mechanics of running the department, in terms of budget and stuff like that,” Sword said.

But Kealoha often would send those under his command out in front of the news cameras, Sword said. “It comes down to the community feeling comfortable and safe, and when you see the head cheese up there saying, ‘Here’s what’s happening, here’s what we’re going to do,’ I think the community feels a lot better,” he said.

After Echemendia gave the names of key law enforcement and government officials the company will meet with, commissioners offered some additions.

Costales, who works for a nonprofit, suggested the Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the University of Hawaii’s Office of Student Equity Excellence Diversity (SEED) as two key groups that EB Jacobs should speak with.

Levinson, the former Supreme Court justice, said that if EB Jacobs intends to speak with the Prosecutor’s Office, it should also meet with the Department of the Public Defender, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice.

Sword, an Outrigger Enterprises executive, suggested EB Jacobs speak with different business and tourism organizations.

Levinson emphasized the magnitude of the search.

“The matter of the selection of a new police chief has become a subject of tremendous public interest,” he said. “So I think it really is critical that you tap into various segments of the community in your general assessment.”

He also told EB Jacobs’ officials that they should take care in studying the subtleties of Hawaii culture. “This is a place that takes a number of years to even begin to understand in any depth,” he said. “Hawaii is unique in the United States in terms of its ethnic makeup.”

EB Jacobs has been in business 35 years, and its main focus is on helping law enforcement agencies nationally and internationally with hiring high-ranking personnel, Echemendia said.