Major accomplishments and important ASFPM activities Tim was involved during his career Include:

• 2007 – Tim becomes co-chair of the Mapping & Engineering Standards Committee just as FEMA’s Risk Map program begins. Along with Sally McConkey (Illinois) and eventually Dave Knipe (Indiana), Tim pushed forward several white papers and reviewed technical abstracts for the national conference. He also actively represented ASFPM in Washington, DC in quarterly mapping meetings with FEMA and representatives of the National Stormwater and Floodplain Management Association (NASFMA). This work improved the Risk Map program and furthered the national levee inventory, mapping protocols, non-levee embankments and more.
• 2012 – Tim becomes Mitigation POD facilitator replacing Chad Berginnis who was hired as the ASFPM Executive Director. Mitigation is at the heart of what Tim has aggressively implemented throughout his career. Tim helped refine many of the committee procedures, annually reported out at national conferences, and was a bridge between the committees and the ASFPM Board of Directors. For several years when mitigation programs were in peril, Tim traveled to DC to meet with legislators to provide perspective on local impacts of how federal programs for flood mapping and mitigation did or did not fill local needs. For many years Tim was one of three members to meet with FEMA’s mitigation staff each quarter to have honest and productive dialogue about mitigation issues. Tim was involved in many policy issues and played an active role in educating agencies and Congress on BW-12 legislation, advocating for expansion of the NFIP Increased Cost of Compliance (ICC) program as a top tool for mitigation, and other issues.
• 2015 – Tim worked as part of a small team to update detailed positions and policies for the ASFPM’s National Flood Programs & Policies in Review (NFPPR). This is one of the most detailed and important guiding documents within ASFPM that typically gets updated every 10 years. Tim participated in the final review process along with the ASFPM Board of Directors, who ultimately adopted the 400 plus recommendations in that updated document.
• 2017 – Tim was awarded ASFPM’s Local Floodplain Manager of the Year for exemplary efforts that continue to serve as a national model on how to avoid flood risk and reduce long term disaster cost while providing community sustainability. Some of his most substantial career accomplishments that lead to the award were:
  • Mecklenburg County’s’ buyout program is recognized nationally and is responsible for removing more than 450 buildings from the floodplain. Tim advocated for local responsibility and looked beyond federal grants to mitigate. Char-Meck created a locally funded buyout program that has acquired property every year for over 24 years now.
  • Mecklenburg County Flood Risk Assessment & Risk Reduction Plan. This innovative plan put risk scores on properties throughout Charlotte-Mecklenburg. It allowed tracking mitigation actions, setting long term goals, and showing the benefits of risk reduction and higher standards. Charlotte-Mecklenburg now has real-time inundation maps, tools to estimate damages and losses avoided within hours of floodwaters receding, and a dashboard to manage flood risk at the community level.
  • Tim helped create and implement a rainy day “Quick Buy” reserve fund that has purchased nearly 100 flooded buildings within months of flooding before repairs were made.
  • Tim created a local non-structural floodproofing grant program called retroFIT (Floodproofing Improvements Together). This program offers financial and technical assistance to property owners that want to implement flood risk reduction measures. The program has incentivized dozens and dozens of owners to mitigate.
  • Mecklenburg County’s’ hallmark future conditions mapping and higher regulatory standards initiatives were born under the leadership of Dave Canaan. Tim took these foundational items and demonstrated their success nationally. As a result, no “new” construction in Charlotte-Mecklenburg has come close to flooding over the past 20 years since implementation of these forward-looking standards.

Throughout Tim’s 20+ year involvement in ASFPM he has continued to share information and learn from the nation’s best floodplain managers. Tim has been a plenary speaker and moderator at the national conference, presented in sessions, workshops, and online training, participated in dozens of policy related “side meetings” with key professionals, and helped lead or coordinate annual policy committee meetings to ensure ASFPM policy committees were obtaining the input and wisdom from the thousands of ASFPM local, state and private sector members.