Reuse Assistance Grant Progress Report

City of Napa Reuse Assistance Grant Project
(Part 4: September 1, 2003 to May 13, 2004)

Project Description

In cooperation with Solano-Napa Builders' Exchange (SNBE), reformed, expanded, and promoted NapaMax (its local materials exchange program) to improve the program's effectiveness. Developed and supported a new, Web-based system (www.napamax.org) with extensive outreach and technical assistance to solicit listings from the entire Solano-Napa region.

Introduction

The City of Napa has sponsored a localized materials exchange program since 1997. In its initial program, the City produced booklets listing wanted or available items. City staff distributed the NapaMax booklets to mostly commercial entities throughout Napa County. Its sponsorship of the local exchange program was based on the assumption that most potential users would be interested in items located relatively close to their home or place of work. The program was designed to offer more concise sets of listings and targeted outreach and promotion than the successful statewide CalMAX program.

The City became interested in a Web-based form of NapaMax after reviewing the Web-based version of CalMAX. It saw the potential advantages of a localized Web-based materials exchange that could be easily updated with monitoring and reporting features.

In March of 2002, the City and California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) entered into an agreement for work proposed by the City in its application for a third cycle Reuse Assistance Grant. The City of Napa Waste Reduction and Recycling Coordinator (Coordinator) described the work as 30 tasks, listing them in the "Work Statement." He revised the Work Statement on February 2, 2002; May 6, 2002; and August 29, 2003 in after discussions with the CIWMB grant administrator to clarify changes to the schedule and use of funding.

The City has successfully completed the grant project tasks. In the following narrative, the City describes its work on this grant-funded project, presents results, and offers a general assessment of the project for the benefit of the CIWMB and other sponsors of "materials exchange" reuse programs.

Project Description and Methods

The Coordinator initiated a Web-based localized materials exchange by obtaining the interest and funding commitment of the Napa City Council. He presented the project description to the City Council in late February of 2002. The City Council approved allocation of the requested funds in March 2002. The official approval cleared the way for City staff to accept grant funding and solicit technical information from a pool of potential contractors specializing in Web site development.

The Coordinator conducted, in cooperation with personnel of the City Information Technology (IT) Division, an informal "concept review and comment period" during which he received input from several private Web site development consultant teams. Staff found this step invaluable to development of a formal scope of work, but, recognized that the work required far more staff time than anticipated. City staff drafted and revised the RFP from April through early June 2002. The Recycling Division staff then completed and released the RFP on June 17 of 2002.

Four qualified Web design consulting firms submitted proposals for the Web site development work by the submittal deadline of June 24, 2002. City staff spent 24 hours reviewing and rating the proposals and selecting a preferred contractor on Thursday, June 27, 2002. It selected a Napa-based Web site design firm to develop the Web site. They took another 32 hours to prepare a contract for Web site design, set-up and maintenance. The Coordinator, IT staff, and City Attorney's Office representative worked in cooperation with the consultants to develop the final contract for Web site development. The contract was signed on July 10, 2002.

The consultants developed, created, and tested the Web site. They produced several versions before settling on a format that provides easy to use, in-depth monitoring and reporting. The consultants also trained Napa City and Napa County staff on basic HTML to enable them to revise content and listings on the Web site. They added site linkages and subjected it to a battery of tests using sample listings. The consultants then changed the descriptive labels and text on several pages of the site to describe the type and extent of transaction that occurred through contacts and "matches." They also developed an e-mail notification feature to alert users of problems, provide instructions, and notify categories of users of new listings.

The City made the site available for use on November 1, 2002. The consultants started to respond to input received from City agency personnel and site users, making improvements to the text, format, and configuration of the various pages.

Prior to the site opening, the City needed to determine the best approach to hosting and maintaining the new Web site. Members of the City IT Division staff assisted with the process. The staff determined that it could host and maintain the site in-house at less than the budgeted amount of funds. The Coordinator determined that the budgeted amount for this task exceeded the need by $6,260. After discussing the issue with the CIWMB grant administrator, he prepared a budget revision to reflect a reallocation of the excess funds for further Web site design work. The revised budget was dated May 6, 2002.

The City IT Division staff started to host and manage the NapaMax site after the consultants completed initial tests. The Coordinator arranged with the CIWMB grant manager to list the value of City IT staff time (calculated as the average monthly cost of the competitive proposals previously received for the work) as a matching fund expenditure for this task.

The City to refine the functionality of the site and expand its capabilities and use. The company reformatted and reconfigured several site features including e-mail notifications, registration, and graphic displays.

After launching the Web site, the Coordinator reviewed, amended, and rejected or posted listings submitted by registered users. He monitored activity and gathered data on contacts and matches in collaboration with consultants. The City received data from site users principally through a questionnaire posted on the site. Users provided their opinions on the site's value and ease of use. The Coordinator continues to gather this input for use in on-going evaluations.

The Coordinator intended to provide technical assistance to Solano-Napa Builders Exchange members by training its agency staff. The effort was meant to focus the program activity on the commercial sector by introducing potential users to the site, including those who may not typically use a computer for their work. The City realized later in the grant period that it did not have the staff resources to accomplish this effort on its own. Without a contributing partner in the Solano County government or business community, it decided to commit its resources to the production and mail distribution of an informational brochure on NapaMax. The brochure was mailed to all members of the SNBE in May of 2004.

The City initially planned to have staff assistants produce flyers for advertising the site periodically throughout the grant period. The Coordinator developed an initial design and layout for flyers in November of 2002 and updated and improved the flyer over the grant period. Due to time constraints resulting from minor delays in the preliminary steps of Web site design, the Coordinator had the flyers copied by a local copy store. The Coordinator needed to suspend flyer production for two quarters. He then doubled the production of flyers later in the grant period to follow more closely the original project timeline. The flyers were used as inserts into the Napa Chamber of Commerce membership bulletins and editions of the Napa Valley Register.

The City advertised the site in several other ways. The Coordinator issued an initial press release to local newspapers and ran a display ads in the Napa Valley Register. It also ran spot radio ads on KVON (Napa) and KUIC (Solano) channels from November of 2002 through the end of the grant period.

The Coordinator hired an independent recycling and waste management consultant to assist with preparation of reports and pay requests and project monitoring and assessment. D. Briggs Consulting prepared the City's progress reports and/or pay requests in August of 2002, second in February of 2003, and the third in August of 2003. It also helped the City with activities related to project assessment and grant closeout.

Results and Discussion

The City of Napa has seen support of this new form of materials exchange among the politicians, government officials, and members of the general public, despite the program's demands on City staff and requirement that users learn a new approach to handling unwanted items.

The Coordinator gained the strong support of the City Council from the outset. City management committed substantial staff resources not only to development of the site, but also to on-going hosting by City personnel. The City has found the site management work consistent with the existing scope of work for its IT Division staff.

NapaMax users have provided invaluable input on the site design and function. Since its debut in November of 2002, NapaMax has received positive reviews from users as well as professionals working in the field of waste reduction, recycling, and waste management. Articles on NapaMax have appeared in trade journals, local newspaper and radio articles, recycling organization newsletters and the CIWMB CalMAX publication.

The City's principal objectives in creating a Web-based NapaMax were to make the program easy to use with up-to-date listings, to increase participation by members of the business community in south Napa County and western Solano County, and to create a system for monitoring and quantifying "exchanges."

The Coordinator considers the Web-based NapaMax a valuable tool in the mix of City waste management programs.

The Web-based NapaMax is more valuable to the City than the old, printed version for several reasons. First, it's easier to use and more up-to-date. Users can have their listings posted in as little as two days. The listings can be removed immediately from the site after a match has been made.

Secondly, it is more interactive. The City is able to notify users by e-message when an item of specific interest to that user has been posted. Interested parties are thus able to respond quickly to new listings from a category of items that they have previously specified. The user is also able to fill out a questionnaire to give their impressions or recommendations on aspects of the Web site. This creates a two-way flow of information that has proven critical to the development of the site.

And most importantly, the City is able to gather detailed data. The Coordinator is able to access the administrative side of the NapaMax site to view information on the number of site visits, number of registered users, numbers of users opening pages offering match details on a listing (pending exchanges), numbers of confirmed exchanges over specific periods, and the reported quantity of items that were exchanged.

The City hoped to handle up to 20 submissions for listings each month with 15 confirmed matches. The Coordinator posted 889 listings over the first 18 months of operation of the Web-based NapaMax program for an average of 49 listings per month. The site also recorded 83 confirmed matches with total estimated weight of 13,430 pounds over a similar period ending in late April, 2004. The City thereby documented an average of five confirmed matches per month in which an average of 162 pounds of materials were "exchanged" per match.

To promote the program, the City distributed 54,000 flyers to local households and 9,600 to Napa area businesses, 87,000 billing inserts to recycling and waste service customers throughout south Napa County, and 3,000 brochures to members of the Solano-Napa Builder's Exchange.

Notwithstanding these promotional efforts, the City effort to create a regional, bi-county exchange program met with limited success. The City set out to create a program involving key elements of the government and private sector of south Napa County and most of eastern Solano County. Its staff methodically gained the support and stated commitment of the Solano-Napa Builder's Exchange, Napa Chamber of Commerce, Solano County and Napa County Departments of Environmental Management. The City hoped that the integrated efforts of these entities would have a synergistic effect on expansion of materials exchange in the region.

The main co-sponsoring entities proved to have more limited resources to contribute than anticipated. Napa City staff found itself more focused on work with its consultants to improve and fine-tune functions of the Web site than with the timing and implementation of promotional and outreach activities. The business groups found little time available for promoting NapaMax amongst their members. Solano County government became, due mainly to changing priorities and staffing, virtually uninvolved in the program.

The Coordinator suspects that the City may have seen a greater number of listings or visits if he had been able to sponsor the advertisement and promotions targeting more Solano County businesses earlier in the grant period. The brochure sent to SNBE members, mailed in May of 2004, had no effect on the NapaMax data thus far.

Future Considerations

The City did not obtain indications of the impact of its advertising or promotional activities, since it did not have sufficient time to establish, then use baseline data within the grant period. Though it made no attempt to correlate advertisement or promotional activities with NapaMax use, it considers this an important next step toward improving the usefulness of this program.

Expansion of the materials exchange may be best accomplished in small steps to areas where mutual interest exists or evolves. The City Coordinator considers the City of Vallejo (in Solano County) just to the south of the Napa County border a potential area for promotion and expansion of the NapaMax program. Vallejo is a partner jurisdiction in the Napa-Vallejo Waste Management Authority. With a population of about 110,000, substantial business base and active nonprofit community, the City may benefit by becoming involved with the NapaMax program.

*Permission was obtained from grant recipient to publish project profile.

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Last updated: June 25, 2008