OCII approves $190,000 contract to migrate agency databases to Power BI

The Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure voted 5-0 Oct. 7 to authorize a three-year, not-to-exceed $190,000 contract with Diamond Technology Services, LLC to migrate several OCII databases to a Power BI platform.

The contract, listed as resolution 24-2025 on the commission agenda, will fund development of a Power BI-based environment, testing and conversion of an initial two databases (the resolution and bond databases), and ongoing maintenance while OCII completes migration of the remaining five legacy Microsoft Access databases.

Monica Davisteen, IT division manager for OCII, told commissioners the agency has used Microsoft Access for about 20 years and that a 2019 contract with Diamond followed the 2020 malfunction of the agency's SQL Server. "This item is for Diamond Technologies. It's a technology contract to help OCII IT overhaul its databases that we have at the agency," Davisteen said. She said the work will make historical data more secure and easier to produce for public records requests and commission reporting.

Project schedule and scope. The contract covers three years with a not-to-exceed amount of $190,000. OCII staff said year 1 will focus on Power BI development and on converting the resolution and bond databases as a foundation for migrating the remaining five databases. Year 2 will emphasize moving code and reports into the production environment and building a budget and schedule for the rest of the conversions. Year 3 anticipates retiring the legacy environment.

Paul Anthony, the technical developer on the project, told commissioners that once the development environment is complete the move to production should take "anywhere from, you know, 2 or 3 months, to move into the production." OCII staff said there will be a development environment for testing, followed by production testing and tailored Power BI interfaces; the legacy system will be retired only after testing is complete.

Questions from commissioners covered artificial intelligence and reporting. Commissioner Miller asked whether Power BI integrates with AI for data search and requests; Davisteen and staff answered Power BI has copilot/AI integration options that OCII can evaluate and govern as part of establishing AI best practices. Staff emphasized that any AI outputs would need user verification and validation of prompts and data sources.

Public records question. During public comment, Oscar James asked whether records dating to the 1950s–1970s from joint housing and redevelopment projects were included in OCII's records and whether the contractor would handle them. Executive Director Thor responded that Diamond is not handling public records requests; OCII will search for and provide copies of records it holds per the agency's public records policy and will accept Mr. James' records request for follow-up.

Action and vote. Commissioner motion and second were called on the item; 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). Staff said they expect to return to the commission for an amendment or new contract to fund conversion of the remaining databases when appropriate.

What the contract does not do. The contract as approved covers only database development and Power BI reporting services; it does not itself resolve outstanding public records searches, nor does it commit OCII to specific downstream policy changes. Staff said data migration and reporting improvements should make historical data easier to locate and present but that public-records retrieval remains an operational task handled under OCII's records policy.

Next steps. OCII staff will proceed with the development-phase work on the two initial databases, test in a development environment, then begin production deployment and reporting configuration. If further funding or contract changes are needed to convert the remaining five databases, staff said they will return to the commission for authorization.