LEBANON — City Council forced former city Attorney Bill Duning to retire in late 1999, an ex-councilman testified on Wednesday, the first day of the trial to determine whether Mr. Duning broke the law by taking an early retirement buyout.

Duning

        “The discussion was, "Here are the options, what are you going to do? And it must happen by the end of the year,'” Mark Flick, a former council member, said of a meeting he and another councilman held with Mr. Duning in November 1999.

        Mr. Duning is one of four former city employees indicted in the case. His buyout cost Lebanon $206,000; the money was returned. His trial on felony theft-in-office charges is expected to last at least through Friday in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

        The city hired a full-time attorney in late 1999, Mr. Flick said, and council wanted to let Mr. Duning go. Mr. Flick said he did not know the attorney planned to take advantage of an early retirement buyout program offered to electric department workers.

        Former city Auditor Debbie Biggs, retired Electric Department Director Bob Newton and former City Manager James Patrick go on trial next month on related charges.

        Defense attorney Jim Perry said it was council's responsibility to decide whether to let Mr. Duning take the buyout.

        But Special Prosecutor Patrick Hanley said Mr. Duning sat through two meetings in which the spending was questioned and never volunteered that he was among the beneficiaries.

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