It can be one of the hardest things that people sometimes have to do: Admit they made a mistake.

A majority of the Bainbridge Island City Council did just that this week, however, when they took the rare action of overturning a decision that was just a week old.

Last week, after learning that state grants to help pay for improvements of the city dock at Waterfront Park would not come through — which would leave the city roughly $835,000 short of the money it needs to complete both phases of the makeover effort of Waterfront Park and the replacement of the city dock — the council made a decision on-the-fly to focus its available funding first on the dock project.

It was a popular decision at the time, in the room. Supporters of the dock do-over had crammed the council chambers and asked the council to make their part of the project the priority.

The passage of time, though not much, made some on the council realize that the decision was too hasty. What’s more, it wasn’t a decision that was forecast on last week’s agenda, and the whole back-and-forth discussion was a bit hard for some to follow.

Evidentially, so was the process that got the city to this point in the redevelopment of Waterfront Park.

Some residents reminded the council that the city had undertaken a long and thorough process that covered the whats and whens of the park project.

One resident smartly noted that funding priorities for the project had already been agreed upon by a consensus of the city council, the Design Review Board and many Bainbridge residents through workshops, surveys and public meetings. What’s more, she noted, the council instead bent to the rally of dock supporters at last week’s meeting.

This week, the council canceled its reordering of priorities for the park project. Instead, it will continue discussions in the weeks ahead.

All-in-all, a good move by the city council.