A Belfield mayor who was recalled 12 years ago is being recalled again.

Mayor Susan Heck, 53, is being recalled for a second time because some citizens say she's incompetent and that she harasses and intimidates others.

The recall petition was filed last week, but not in time for the issue to make the Nov. 2 general election.

Belfield Auditor Doug Kessel said it appears a special election will have to be held Dec. 7.

Heck said she plans to run again and that she is not the kind of mayor characterized by the complaints against her.

"I have no idea what that means," she said. "I really don't feel I'm intimidating."

She was recalled in 1992 and was elected mayor in 1998 and 2002.

She said Belfield chamber president LaVonne Goetsch organized this petition because the city reapportioned money that goes to the chamber from the city's 1-cent sales tax to a special fund to improve the streets.

Goetsch said the move prompted her to organize a petition, but it's not the heart of the matter.

"We don't want people to see this as a vendetta or a hate thing," Goetsch said. "We just want the town to move forward."

Goetsch said that Heck's governing style is to control every aspect of governing, down to miniscule expenditures, and to obstruct projects she doesn't like by not releasing funding for them.

"I don't think we can take two more years of Susan (Heck)," Goetsch said.

Heck said the sales tax generates about $60,000 annually. She said she wants to build up a street improvement fund to prevent Belfield from near bankruptcy, like what happened in the early '90s after the oil boom.

Goetsch said the small amount of money from the sales tax wouldn't make any difference as the streets will require either extensive grants or a bond issue.

"She (Heck) has some positive attributes, but she doesn't know how to work with people or how to run a city," Goetsch said.

Kessel said he still has to certify the signatures. The petition required 57 and the organizers gathered 87.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)