Colorado Springs Councilwoman Helen Collins said a recall effort could happen at any time against any council member when some secret group hires people to run it.

Collins, speaking at the City Council work session Monday, said she regards the recall effort a joke because it was not organized by the citizens of District 4.

Colorado Springs Government Watch, a newly formed nonprofit group which has not revealed its board or its donors, hired about 30 people to collect signatures for a recall election against Collins. The Government Watch group paid signature collectors from $1.75 to $5 per signature. Collins said most of the signature collectors were not from District 4 or Colorado.

“It’s atrocious that people from out of the state can come in and tell people here how to vote,” Collins said.

The recall petition was turned in by District 4 resident Deborah Hendrix, who ran against Collins two years ago. But Collins contends that the recall effort was bought by the Government Watch group, which is run by Dede Laugesen — the wife of The Gazette’s editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen.

Hendrix turned in enough valid signatures to get the recall question on the ballot. City Council will vote Tuesday to set the recall election date and is expected to put the recall question on the April ballot.

Meanwhile, there is still a chance former state legislator and convicted felon Douglas Bruce will file an official protest on the recall. In an email he sent to City Council last week he wrote, “It appears that your own city code requires a 40-day period to file a protest after the petition is filed. Therefore, you cannot place the recall issue on the April 7 ballot. A firm that is expert in this area has been hired by a third party and is actively researching the entry validity.”

Britt Haley, the city’s corporate division chief in the City Attorney’s Office, advised City Clerk Sarah Johnson to leave the City Council work session Monday when the recall and possible protest was discussed.

“To ensure a fair election process and recognizing that the City Clerk may be called upon to serve as a hearing officer and to decide the merits of a protest complaint if one is filed against the petition signatures, the City Clerk was advised to not participate in the discussion of the recall election item on the Council work session agenda,” Haley wrote in an email to The Gazette following the work session meeting.

City Council will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.