The numbers were down on the second day of early voting for the Dec. 16 runoff election.  While on the first day 0.94 percent of registered Travis County voters cast ballots, on Tuesday only 0.75 percent — or 4,167 people — did. That means a total of 9,351 people have voted so far in the runoff election. As was the case throughout most of the November election, the highest turnout was at the Randalls at Research Boulevard and Braker Lane. That location saw 572 votes cast Tuesday. The lowest turnout at a designated voting location was the Pflugerville County Tax Office with 21 votes cast, but mobile voting locations at the Manor ISD Administration Building and Brookdale Beckett Meadows had turnouts in the single digits. All told, 1.69 percent of those registered in Travis County have voted so far. Early voting continues through Dec. 12. Get more information here.

Austin Energy is currently negotiating with renewable energy activists to reach agreement on a generation plan for the utility that will satisfy those who are seeking to reduce Austin’s carbon emissions as well as utility customers who worry about future price increases. Utility spokesman Robert Cullick told the Monitor on Tuesday, “I can confirm that we are intensely negotiating with the Sierra Club on a way to reduce our CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, keep our costs low and continue making progress on withdrawing from the Fayette Power Plant.” Cullick declined to give details on the negotiations, but utility officials believe it is important for Austin Energy to build new gas turbines to replace the old turbines at the Decker Creek power plant when the current plant is decommissioned. A citizen task force last summer produced a generation plan that would eliminate fossil fuel to the greatest extent possible from the utility’s portfolio, including natural gas, and add 600 MW of solar power. Cullick said, “We’re willing to look at our reliance on renewables and how fast we can increase that.” He added, “We’re looking at ways to continue to cut back carbon emissions significantly and also be leaders in things like local solar and battery storage and also industrial solar.” The bottom line, he said, is that whatever plan is adopted must be affordable. City Council has an Austin Energy committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Although the generation plan is on the agenda, it seems unlikely that the two sides will have concluded their negotiations by then. Dec. 11 is the final meeting for the current Council, and Council Member Mike Martinez is expected to propose adoption of the new generation plan at that time.

It looks like Travis County Judge-elect Sarah Eckhardt will be coming out of her brief retirement a few weeks early in order to help the current County Commission narrow the slate of candidates for the Central Health board of managers. Eckhardt quit her job as Pct. 2 Commissioner in the spring in order to run for county judge. Last week, after finding out they had 39 applicants and only two weeks to make a decision on replacing two vacancies on the Central Health board, Commissioners voted to put it off a week and ask Eckhardt to join in the process. The game plan is now for a committee consisting of Eckhardt, outgoing County Judge Sam Biscoe, Intergovernmental Relations Coordinator Deece Eckstein and Executive for Health and Human Services and Veterans Services Sherri Fleming meet and make an initial cut of the 39 applicants down to about 20. After that, they will meet again and make further cuts to get the number down to the 10 or 12 top applicants. In about two weeks, the current Commission will review those names and pass them along to the new Commission, which will be sworn in Jan. 6.

On Monday, the Board of Adjustment turned down the chance to reconsider its ruling on BVM CrossFit, with only Board Members Will Schnier and Vincent Harding voting in favor of hearing the case again. In October, the board ruled against the Planning and Development Review Department determination and found that General Commercial Services was a more appropriate description of the facility’s land use than Personal Improvement Services. The ruling was met with cheering from neighbors and visible agitation from those who were (presumably) associated with the CrossFit facility.

Turnout on the first day of early voting in the mayoral and Council runoff elections was light, with less than 1 percent of registered voters casting a ballot. Some 5,184 votes were cast Monday; 3,570 ballots were cast in person, while 1,614 ballots were mailed. The voting  location with the largest number of first-day votes was the Randalls at Braker and Research, with 536. The Randalls at MoPac and William Cannon accepted 479 votes, while the Ben Hur Shrine Center had 387. Some 383 votes were cast at mobile voting locations. Early voting for the runoff elections runs through Dec. 12. For polling locations and other information, go to Travis County Elections page.

Greg Foster, the community advocate to the Austin Regional Intelligence Center, told Public Safety Commissioners on Monday that the fusion center’s steps toward increased transparency have impressed him. ARIC aims to “maximize the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity” via shared gathering intelligence between partner organizations, according to the Austin Police Department website. Foster said ARIC now posts the minutes online from ARIC Privacy Policy Advisory Committee meetings, and that the fusion center responds to open records requests in a timely fashion. “I’ll give credit where credit is due,” he said. Activists have targeted ARIC and other fusion centers for potentially infringing on civil liberties. No civil liberty activists spoke out against ARIC at Monday’s meeting, which Public Safety Commission Chair Kim Rossmo said he “found amazing.”

Today is the first day of early voting for the Dec. 16 runoff elections. Voters may vote at any early voting location in the county in which they are registered. Voters are required to show a current photo ID, unless voting by mail. There are runoff elections for Austin mayor, Districts 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10, Austin Community College Place 2, and AISD Board of Trustees’ at-large position and Districts 1 and 6. More information for Travis County voters can be found here.

With their own elections squared away, Congressman Lloyd Doggett and Travis County Judge-elect Sarah Eckhardt have time to help fellow Democrats. They will be hosting a fundraiser for District 8 candidate Ed Scruggs, a Democrat who is running against Republican Ellen Troxclair in the Dec. 16 runoff. The party will be at the home of former state Rep. Valinda Bolton, 5000 Wood Creek Road, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Scruggs, a longtime Democrat, founded the Circle C Democrats. Early voting in this and all runoff races begins today. Doggett has already helped District 4 candidate Greg Casar by participating in block walking and a fundraiser. Republicans state Rep. Paul Workman and Commissioner Gerald Daugherty are among the elected officials supporting Troxclair.

Tonight, in a follow-up to the 2014 Housing Market Study, the city will host a closer look at the study and get into what impediments Austin has to fair housing. The presentation, by BBC Research & Consulting Managing Director Heidi Aggeler, will be followed by a question and answer period and is open to the public. The presentation will take place at 6 p.m. at City Hall. A second presentation that promises to “dig deeper into the data” of the study will take place at 8 a.m. Tuesday. That meeting will be held at the LifeWorks building, 835 N. Pleasant Valley Road.

For those who missed it, last week the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce released its 2014 Central Texas Hispanic Business Market Landscape. The report, which surveyed 9,693 Hispanic-owned businesses in the region that generate $4.8 billion in revenue, predicted that by 2020 that number could climb to 51,000 businesses that would generate $12.8 billion in revenue. At a news conference last week, Economic Development Department Director Kevin Johns said the report was a “critical step” toward developing a realistic analysis of the population of Hispanic businesses. “I think the future is rapidly approaching for the Hispanic business community,” Johns said. “I think if we all pull together, this is going to be a major part of the solution in creating equality and growth in Austin’s future.”

As a special gift to Austin Monitor readers (and writers and editors), we are giving you the next two days off to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday however you choose. We will see you bright and early Monday, with updates on everything that transpired in the meantime. Have a great holiday!

The Travis County Democratic Party announced Tuesday that it is officially endorsing the Democrats running in each of four Austin City Council runoff races as well as the Democrat running for AISD Trustee in District 1. County Democratic Party Chair Jan Soifer will hold a City Hall news conference at noon today to discuss the endorsements. The Democrats endorsed AISD Trustee candidate Edmund “Ted” Gordon as well as Council candidates Greg Casar in District 4, Jimmy Flannigan in District 6, Ed Scruggs in District 8 and Mandy Dealey in District 10. The party did not endorse in Districts 7 and 3 because there are two Democrats in those races. Soifer released the following statement: “The City of Austin is a Democratic stronghold in this state, much to the dismay of the GOP. Republicans have targeted our City Hall and our School Board as places where they can get a toehold. They want to make Austin hostile to social justice, women’s rights, LGBT rights, civil rights, the environment, and adequately funded quality public education for all.” Republicans would argue that they have been shut out of city government for a very long time and will fight to get their candidates elected, particularly Ellen Troxclair in District 8, Don Zimmerman in District 6 and Sheri Gallo in District 10. It is not clear how hard they will fight for Laura Pressley, who sometimes votes in Republican primaries and sometimes in Democratic primaries but has a reputation for ideas outside of the mainstream of either party.