While nightlife security, hunger, and education top the fall agenda for the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, one notable omission from her list of priorities is an issue that has been on many minds of late: term limits.

In an interview this week, the speaker said that while she has commissioned a poll on term limits, she is not committed to tackling the hot-button issue. She plans to brief council members later this month on the results of the poll. (“They were mixed,” is all Ms. Quinn would allow.)

While Ms. Quinn would not rule out passing legislation to grant a possible third term, she said she prefers putting the idea to the voters in a citywide referendum.

“If we are going to address term limits, and how, if we do, has not yet been answered,” she said.

Mayor Bloomberg has said the voters, already polled twice on the issue — in 1993 and 1996 — should be left alone.

The speaker has forged a close relationship with the mayor; the two appear together frequently and have worked side-by-side on numerous initiatives since Ms. Quinn took office in January.The issue of term limits threatens to shatter that bond.

The risk of alienating Mr. Bloomberg appears to weigh heavily as Ms. Quinn broaches the issue with her colleagues, many of who are far less concerned about staying close to the popular mayor. In the interview, Ms. Quinn chose her words carefully when asked about Mr. Bloomberg, speaking with a tone that exuded diplomacy. She did, though, make clear one difference. “The mayor and I simply disagree,” the speaker said about term limits. “He thinks it’s not a question worth considering. I think it does merit consideration.”

Ms. Quinn could also butt heads with Mr. Bloomberg this fall on the issue of pay increases for elected officials. The billionaire mayor only takes $1 for an annual salary, but council members have not gotten a raise in seven years. A mayor-appointed commission is expected to make recommendations to Mr. Bloomberg within a couple of weeks, a City Hall spokesman, Stuart Loeser, said.

The speaker has asked for a 25% raise for council members, but whether the commission or the mayor will support her is far from clear. Mr. Bloomberg last month offered no endorsement of a pay raise, suggesting that it should be determined by a formula factoring in skill level, education, and experience.

By most any standard, Ms. Quinn is asking for a lot. In addition to the 25% hike for council members — which would bring their base salary to $112,500 from $90,000 — Ms. Quinn is also asking the commission to allow the lawmakers to keep their stipends for committee chairmanships and leadership positions. The stipends range between $4,000 and $18,000, but because the council has so many standing committees — more than the House of Representatives — all but five city lawmakers get the extra money.

“I think it’s appropriate for members who are taking on additional responsibilities to get a stipend to compensate for that work and for the additional responsibility,” Ms. Quinn, who served as chairwoman of the Health Committee before her election as speaker, said. “When I went from not being a chair to chairing a committee, I knew it would be more work. It was even more work than I could have imagined. So I think it’s a fair thing.”

Good-government groups have called for any pay raise to be accompanied by an elimination of the stipends, often called lulus.

“Congress does not provide additional stipends to committee chairs. Why can’t the City Council follow the model established by Congress?” the executive director of the Citizens Union, Dick Dadey, said.

Mr. Dadey also criticized Ms. Quinn’s request for the council to retain its status as a “part-time” position, thus allowing lawmakers to collect outside income. “Earning up to $100,000 plus for a part-time job in public service doesn’t pass the smell test,” he said.

Defending her stance, Ms. Quinn said,”The vast, vast majority of council members work more than a full-time job. If they want to work more than a full-time job, and add another part time job on top of that, that’s up to them.” She added, “If they want to spend every waking hour working, God bless them.”

The salary commission is also considering increases for the positions of mayor, borough president, comptroller, public advocate, and district attorney.

Aside from pushing for raises, Ms. Quinn says she is focusing on nightlife security, hunger issues, and education this fall. She is spearheading a summit on nightlife later this month, and says she is also working on initiatives to fulfill her goal of reducing hunger in the city by half by the end of her four-year term.