As Cincinnati City Council squelched public discussion of the city's riverfront negotiations with Hamilton County, city and county administrators met privately Tuesday to forge a deal by week's end.
Hamilton County Administrator David Krings emerged from a marathon session with City Manager John Shirey on Tuesday night, calling the six-hour meeting productive.
''We don't have a tentative agreement, but progress was made,'' Mr. Krings said. ''We're going to sit down with our staffs, update our bosses, better define our differences and meet again (this) afternoon.''
It is not expected that council will get to vote on a deal today at its regular meeting.
Earlier Tuesday, Bengals attorney Stuart Dornette and County Commissioners Tom Neyer Jr. and Bob Bedinghaus paid an unusual visit to city council chambers.
With TV lights glaring, the commissioners tried to say hello and shake hands with members of council, some of whom appeared surprised to see them. After all, six council members made it clear last week they would stop the meeting immediately, saying the team and county shouldn't bother to show up.
Just after 3 p.m., the shortest council meeting in recent memory began, with all seven other members of council making good on the promise to end the meeting before it started.
Council members Todd Portune and Jeanette Cissell called the meeting and invited county and Bengals leaders to clear the air on the talks that Bengals President Mike Brown has said must be resolved by Saturday or he'll kill the stadium deal.
In a letter Tuesday asking Mr. Portune and Ms. Cissell to call off the meeting, council members said ''any effort to publicly negotiate an agreement undermines the city manager and is unproductive.''
Mr. Portune said he never intended to negotiate the deal in public; he simply wanted to know whether the key players agreed to the basics.
The county needs city-controlled riverfront land to build the Bengals stadium complex.
GOOD OR BAD, STADIUM DEAL MUST BE DONE Tim Sullivan column
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