It’s the kind of thing that corporations do all the time.

Hire a strategic consultant to lead a workshop aimed to build teamwork, create a vision and find solutions. Often in those settings, the participants leave the room amped up, ready to be more productive and pumped for the next state with fiery enthusiasm.

The City of Santa Barbara held its own version of the strategy session on Tuesday, in a special City Council meeting at the Palm Park Beach House on Cabrillo Boulevard.

The discussion lasted five hours, with a catered lunch, and included moments of optimism and frustration.

“That’s the difficulty, trying to take an idea and make it into something that happens, with seven people, with 20 different opinions among the seven people, and something happens the next day to change all that,” Councilman Mike Jordan said. “That is one of my big frustrations.”

The city hired Raftelis Financial Consultants at a cost of $84,150 to help create a three- to five-year Strategic Plan. Tuesday’s meeting was one workshop for that process and was facilitated by Raftelis project manager Nancy Hetrick.

The council gathered around tables while Hetrick stood in the middle, with two helpers taking copious notes. They wrote their ideas and goals on sticky notes in response to questions about what they believe Santa Barbara is, and what it should be in five years.

Hetrick tried to wrangle the council members into realistic expectations of the workshop, frequently saying, “We’re not going to land the plane today,” but the seven-member City Council was split on many details related to council goals, such as how to create more affordable housing, whether to reopen State Street to vehicles, and how to increase tax revenues.

“It is concerning to me that the one that is least represented up there is the financial part, because you can have all the goals in the world, but if you can’t pay for them that’s all that they are going to be,” Jordan said.

The facilitator seemed to focus on routine talking points, while the council members wanted to be specific.

“When you are thinking about a three- to five-year horizon for a Strategic Plan, some of these things year one, year two really focus on — we talked about this at the beginning — that core foundation; that might be financial resources, that might be core service delivery and staffing,” Hetrick said.

Councilwoman Meagan Harmon also expressed frustration with the workshop process and priorities discussion.

The council members placed more than 70 sticky notes with their priorities on the white board, which included things such as financial stability, housing downtown, more open space, increased wildfire protection and more.

“These are impossible to disagree with,” Harmon said. “It’s also everything. It’s literally everything. Every single thing that comes before us I could shoehorn it into these priorities.”

Harmon asked, “Can someone tell me what’s not up here?”

One of the most telling parts of the meeting was when each council member identified the one thing they would like to see in the next three to five years.

Councilman Oscar Gutierrez said “free parking.”

Mayor Randy Rowse said he wanted to see State Street open to vehicles.

Jordan said he wanted financial stability.

Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said she wanted rent stabilization.

Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria said, “My one thing would be for every city worker and local business, both owner and employee, to be able to afford to live in Santa Barbara, and that takes many forms,” including rent stabilization and building housing.

Harmon said she wanted housing justice.

Councilman Eric Friedman said a financial plan that sets up future councils for success so they are not having the same trouble as the current council.

Each of the city’s department heads attended the meeting and sat at the back of the room working on their computers throughout the meeting. A handful of people spoke during public comment, requesting that the city put $5 million into its Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The City Council is set to discuss its annual budget next Tuesday.

Rowse expressed frustration that the discussion was happening so close to budget talks. He held up a copy of the budget and said, “This has got to be the guiding principle. Nothing happens without this. Right now, we are looking at softer sales taxes, and we are looking at potentially reduced transient occupancy taxes.”

Harmon said she struggles with the whole idea of a three- to five-year vision because each of the council members has so many different perspectives.

“I still don’t feel that I have an anchoring principle on what our shared vision is because there is so much that separates us, as there should be, and I am wondering if maybe we are trying to get at something that doesn’t really exist,” she said. “I really don’t know where to go.”

Sneddon said the workshop was productive and helped set the stage for budget decisions. She said the workshop’s goal was not to create new things to spend money on, but find alignment on the things that are important to everyone at the city.

“The money is going places,” Sneddon said. “Is it going where we want it to go? What I am taking away from this is clarity that, yes, these are still our priorities, as we are going into the budget deliberations.”