The Penn Hills parks and recreation director's complaint against Penn Hills School District will not be heard by Magisterial District Judge Leonard HRomyak in Penn Hills.

Because of state ethics rules, HRomyak said in his courtroom last week that he would not hear the case Dan Miller, parks and recreation director, filed against the school district in March.

HRomyak made the announcement last week because Miller was scheduled for a hearing.

HRomyak has sent a request that the case be reassigned to President Judge Joseph James of Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

James likely will reassign the case to another magisterial district judge in a neighboring community, HRomyak said, adding that he has recused himself from cases about four times in the past 11 years.

The decision to recuse himself was easy because state ethic rules require magisterial district judges to recuse themselves if hearing a case might cause questions of impartiality to be raised, according to HRomyak, who said he socializes with Miller.

A new hearing for Miller's case could be held in a month, HRomyak said.

Miller did not return a call seeking comment on the case.

Superintendent Patricia Gennari and solicitor Craig Alexander were present for the scheduled hearing on Miller's case.

In the civil complaint, Miller claims breach of contract upon offer consideration and acceptance of verbal and written agreement, anticipatory breach of contract prior to the time of required performance and employment discrimination based on total disregard of employment advertisement and publicized deadlines.

Miller did not attach a contract with the district to his complaint, nor did he specify which position the complaint is about and what incident caused him to file the complaint.

Miller's complaint is about the junior varsity baseball coach position, according to Erin Vecchio, school board president.

"He never got a contract for the position. All contracts are approved by the school board," Vecchio said in April. "Dan Miller is making Penn Hills taxpayers foot the bill for nonsense litigation."

If Miller held the junior varsity baseball coach position, she said, that would cause a conflict with Miller's municipal job because the coach position involves working during the day.

Miller, a Penn Hills High School graduate, has been parks and recreation director since October 2002. He serves as the announcer for district basketball and football games.