I'm trying to wrap up a few routine matters from City Hall before the weekend. Here's the latest:

The City Council on Monday is to consider placing a bunch of items on the Oct. 6 ballot.

They will consider several proposed amendments to the City Charter. They include making the city clerk and city attorney more independent of the mayoral administration; setting up a salary commission to make it easier for elected officials to get pay raises; and establishing a conference committee to resolve disputes between the mayor and council.

Also on the agenda is a measure that would ask voters to renew a sales tax that supports transportation initiatives.

Councilors might also vote to prohibit drivers from revving their engines Downtown.

The meeting is at 5 p.m. in the city-county Government Center, One Civic Plaza NW.

And the mayor was making some news, too: Martin Chávez announced a new research agreement involving the University of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories and the city of Albuquerque.

Initially, the effort will involve using UNM and Sandia’s brain power to help solve “real-world problems in the city of Albuquerque,” the mayor said. “It’s really exciting.”

He said he expects the agreement to become a model for other communities around the country.