The Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure voted 5-0 Oct. 7 to authorize a three-year, not-to-exceed $176,775 contract with Lowercase Productions, LLC for website design, maintenance and content updates.

Director Kozlowski (as listed on the agenda) introduced the item as a standard three-year website maintenance contract and said the OCII website is a primary public information source. "This is a contract to help support our website maintenance. Our website is a great source of information," Director Kozlowski said on the record.

Scope and purpose. OCII staff and the vendor described four main work buckets: redesign and content updates for pages such as the annual housing report and small business/contracting pages; Drupal upgrades to align with the city Department of Technology publishing platform; a digital accessibility and inclusion standard (DAIS) audit with remediation work targeted at people with a range of disabilities; and hosting evaluation to improve performance and mobile experience.

Teams and prior work. Monica Davisteen, OCII IT division manager, said Lowercase led OCII's earlier website modernization work completed in August 2024 and that Lowercase and local subcontractor 5Path will continue technical and accessibility work. Davisteen introduced project team members Daniel Reeder and Andrew Sanchez (Lowercase) and Eric Leland of 5Path. Jamie, the commission secretary, was identified as OCII's website content lead.

Accessibility and mobile. Commissioners asked about accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. Eric Leland of 5Path explained the accessibility effort will structure pages for screen readers, include hierarchical coding so readers follow logical order, and support audio players or third-party reading tools. Staff said the audit will assess language availability and mobile responsiveness, with the DAIS audit targeted for completion in 2026.

Timeline and benchmarks. Staff described a two-year delivery cadence: year 1 will include stakeholder surveys, mockups, hosting upgrades, a Drupal update and the DAIS audit; year 2 will cover prelaunch testing and final launch activities. Staff said the contract includes work to make key resources—such as calls to action for affordable housing, small-business contracting opportunities and RFPs—easier to find.

Outreach and discoverability. Commissioners and staff discussed ways to drive people to the site, including continuing targeted outreach through OCII's citizens advisory committees, email lists and workshops; possible advertising or bus-stop outreach; QR codes for direct access; and social media links. Executive Director Thor emphasized OCII's existing targeted outreach lists for neighborhood advisory groups and developer/vendor notifications.

Action and vote. The commission approved the contract in a 5-0 vote (Commissioner Lim: yes; Commissioner Miller: yes; Commissioner Shattuck: yes; Vice Chair Aquino: yes; Chair Dr. Carolyn Ransom Scott: aye). The item was listed as resolution 25-2025 on the agenda.

Next steps. Staff will conduct stakeholder surveys, present mockups, carry out the DAIS audit and return with any required amendments or prelaunch results ahead of the public site relaunch.