Downers Grove’s Village Manager Dave Fieldman denies claims made by DuPage County storm water management officials alleging that the village refused to provide engineering records needed to determine if storm water permits were improperly issued.

“The county had full unfettered access to all info and all requests for documents were answered in a timely fashion,” Fieldman said.

The village’s response comes after DuPage storm water permitting manager Clayton Heffter said he had been denied engineering documents necessary to complete an investigation into the storm water permitting process for two developments in Downers Grove.

“They called to say that they would not be submitting the documents,” Heffter said Friday.

Without the documents Heffter said he could not determine if there was merit to a complaint filed with his office last August by Downers Grove resident Laurel Bowen.

According to preliminary findings of the investigation, the village did nothing wrong from an administrative standpoint, DuPage County storm water officials said.

However, still at issue, Heffter said, is the capacity of storm water retention ponds built to offset flooding in the areas of development. Heffter said he was seeking documents that would have indicated whether the storm water retention facilities could hold a large enough volume of water.

The official transcript of topics discussed at a Jan. 4 meeting of the county Storm Water Management Planning Committee – which is vice chaired by Downers Grove Mayor Ron Sandack – lends some credence to Heffter’s claim.

According to the transcript, committee chairman Jim Zay, who is also a county board member, stated that if the requested documents were not received, the committee would move forward in assessing the complaint without them.