Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and members of City Council conducted a series of meetings yesterday seeking a consensus on a renewed fiscal recovery plan.

With time running out before a self-imposed June 30 deadline, the talks are an effort to rehabilitate the chances of a plan that seemed headed to defeat before a marathon council session Wednesday. In the talks, described as productive by the administration and by lawmakers, the negotiators' goal is to coalesce behind one comprehensive amendment to the plan, which is required under the state's Act 47 for financially distressed municipalities.

Council President Doug Shields said he hoped that a compromise amendment could be voted on as early as tomorrow. Neither he nor the administration would discuss details of the hoped-for accord, which appeared to remain in flux last night.

Mr. Ravenstahl warned last week that the city faced "chaos" if the fiscal plan were not adopted. But some council members have argued that the plan was unrealistic as it rested in part on revenue changes requiring the approval of a Legislature whose members have shown little appetite for imposing new taxes on their suburban constituents.

While the outcome remained in question, the atmospherics of the new talks represented a distinct change in tone from the acrimony that has divided council and the administration in recent budget deliberations.

Among the proposals under discussion is the possibility of extending the city's 0.55 percent tax on payrolls to nonprofit organizations. That would require the approval of the Legislature. Anticipating the significant odds against the Legislature agreeing to that change, Mr. Ravenstahl and council members have also discussed alternatives including the imposition of fees of $25 for each hospital admissions and new levies of $50 to be paid by colleges for each undergraduate.

The mayor has also aired the possibility of significant increases on nonprofits' water bills, as well as a new $5 charge for all-day parking by customers of the city's Parking Authority. The administration contends that such revenue generators could be enacted without Legislative approval. They represent alternatives to a plan to increase a $52 tax on workers in the city to $145 that is dependent on approval that Harrisburg has been loath to grant.

Some members of council are also working on changes to the Act 47 plan that would affect salaries and management issues for the city's Public Safety Department. City Controller Michael Lamb has suggested several amendments to the plan, including a call for flexibility in collective bargaining requirements that would allow tradeoffs between salary increases and pension contributions.