You're overlooking the good reasons that there wasn't a council majority in favor of looking further into the proposal, and thus no negotiations. In the Roger Grey era, EWEB would not seriously entertain the notion of proposing new digs for administrators. Reality based councilors were wise to the ultimate dead end. A council majority also did not think that the riverfront was the appropriate civic location for City Hall from a purely symbolic standpoint. I tend to agree. They were never good at articulating this, but it's the gist, as I interpreted it.