When committee member Alfred B. Fantini tried to strike a key provision that board member Alice L. Turkel had said she favored, Turkel lost patience.

"Why don't you leave it in there?" she said. "It's two o'clock in the morning, Fred."

Fantini withdrew his amendment.

Right until the end, compromise was in doubt.

As the meeting stretched into its seventh and eighth hours, the crowd thinned. At least 50 people remained to the final vote, though they grew restless and hostile by the end. Members of the largely pro-randomization audience booed and hissed when Walser offered an amendment to assure choice.

When the possibilities seemed bleakest and the committee began roll-call votes on a doomed version of the accord, D'Alessandro whispered, "Please don't do this. Oh, God."

And then, as the committee was just about to take a final vote that likely would have repeated the Jan. 23 decision, Turkel--the crucial swing vote--offered a last-minute amendment to salvage a compromise shortly after 2 a.m.