It's nice to be proved wrong. Especially when the people doing the proving wrong sit on the Dallas City Council.

Last week I warned that the City Council was faced with a pretty simple choice when filling the city's empty spot on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board. One candidate was Patrick Kennedy, the urban planner who spent around a decade using public transportation and wants an immediate overhaul of bus routes. The other was Howard Gilberg, an environmental attorney who's ridden DART a few times and thinks low ridership could be increased with better marketing.

Panelist and urban planner Patrick Kennedy speaks during a town hall meeting and debate about the Trinity Parkway toll road in December, 2014. (Andy Jacobsohn / Staff Photographer)

And as late as Tuesday night, I was told that the council was pretty evenly split — 8-7, with some on the council believing Gilberg was the guy. What should have been an easy decision was looking mighty hard to tell.

And, look. Maybe it seems like a minor vote, filling one of Dallas' seven seats on a 15-person board whose members the general public can't name. But make no mistake: This is a big deal, because for the first time, the council had the chance to put an actual transportation expert on the board of the region's transportation agency.

And there's never been a more important moment for the mass-transit agency. DART's wrestling with laying down the Cotton Belt up north while tunneling a second downtown rail line while delaying long-needed bus-route redo's. DART is often cited, in the council's own briefings, as a poverty-maker in this city.

The council, and its seven appointees to the board, must demand change now. It's time to admit: We can't wait for a guy talking about the need for better marketing and transit-oriented developments to get up to speed. The system's broken, and the poor can't wait for someone to plow through the instruction manual.

There was just one roadblock to the obvious choice: the chair of the council's Transportation Committee, who nominated the nice guy who admitted to the council he's no expert.

Things weren't looking good leading up to Wednesday's vote. Gilberg had that committee's endorsement. Kennedy had the uphill climb.

Anyone watching this council for any length of time knew who would be siding with Kennedy: Philip Kingston, Sandy Greyson, Scott Griggs, Adam Medrano, Mark Clayton, Adam McGough. Lee Kleinman was going with his guy, Gilberg; so, too, were Monica Alonzo and Casey Thomas, who'd voted for the lawyer in committee. The question was, who would go with Kennedy: Jennifer Staubach Gates? The mayor? Anyone?

When it came time for the DART board vote, Mayor Mike Rawlings made it clear he wasn't screwing around. White Rock Lake's Mark Clayton nominated Kennedy, and the mayor immediately called for a roll-call vote, by which the council members would yay or nay into an open mike.

Rawlings went first, voting in favor of Kennedy — the guy who used to run a blog called Living Carfree in Big D. And he did so emphatically. Then, one by one, the dominoes fell.

In the end, only three voted against Kennedy's nomination: Kleinman (of course), Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Erik Wilson and Rickey Callahan.

After the vote, council members, even the ones you can usually rely on for a good quote, said they weren't going to comment. Neither would Kennedy, except to spell out his immediate to-do's: "From operational standpoint, work to improve the bus system throughout the member cities. Part of that means meeting with all the other board members, getting to know staff better and working with them to see what can be done."

Clearly, some heavy politicking took place behind the scenes. Letters were sent to council members; calls made. My inbox filled up with copies of missives sent to council members, from neighborhood associations and business leaders and plain ol' residents. Some were specifically in support of Kennedy; others just begged the council to go with someone who has "an understanding of ... urban mobility principles and how they can play a role in helping realize success."

And in the end, that's just what they did. They went with the no-brainer, the expert, the guy who rides the rails and wants to fix a dreadful bus system that contributes to the high-and-getting-higher poverty rate in a city where it takes some people more than 90 minutes just to get to work.

Maybe the council was on its best behavior because the city manager candidates are sitting in council chambers Wednesday. Maybe the mayor cut a deal with council members. One thing's clear, though: The council did the right thing today.

Happy holidays from 1500 Marilla.