Citizen-initiated recalls of elected public officials are extreme — and occasionally necessary — reactions to conduct that is so contrary or damaging to the public interest that it must be immediately remedied by throwing someone out of office.

We don’t think that the actions of Sedro-Woolley Mayor Mike Anderson, as related to the Deluxe Recycling and Disposal dispute, rise to anything like the kind of malfeasance or corruption of public duty that would warrant the recall petition recently launched against him.

A recall is an instant and visceral plebiscite that inevitably will leave scars — and may not even achieve the desired result. The mayor is but one public official and doesn’t unilaterally control anything.

We understand the frustration of many Sedro-Woolley residents over the way the city has handled an application by Deluxe to build a garbage processing and recycling center near the high school. The level of resentment has boiled over to outrage for many people who believe that their elected and appointed public officials have ignored their concerns and protests in favor of a cushy business deal.

While city officials have sometimes characterized the controversy as a building permit discussion, it is of course more than that — and has mutated into something whose significance is well beyond the siting of a recycling center.

Our observations about the Deluxe proposal have focused on two issues: The perception by some residents that process has been skirted or subverted to the detriment of citizen participation, and that however laudable the Deluxe proposal might be, it must fit logically with an overall waste management plan for the county.

A recycling center might benefit Sedro-Woolley but make an efficient countywide system more difficult to achieve. The process question is something for the courts to work out now. The countywide waste management planning issue has yet to be satisfactorily addressed by Sedro-Woolley.

All that said, the movement to recall Anderson seems more personal than political. The mayor has been a lightning rod, as mayors often are, for the most vigorous objections to the proposal.

Disagreeing with public officials’ actions is one thing, and can ultimately be remedied at the polls. But even intense dissatisfaction with public policy must be accompanied by evidence of egregious misbehavior by the targeted official. However one feels about Mayor Anderson’s decisions, a recall has the appearance of over-reaching.

• Editorials reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board and are written by its members: Publisher L. Stedem Wood, Editor Don Nelson and City Editor Dick Clever. Signed columns reflect the authors’ viewpoints.