After a run of dopey and self-destructive San Bernardino Sun newsroom personnel decisions, many of which have been chronicled here, they got some right this week.

George Watson has been promoted to city editor, and the venerable Wes Hughes is being brought back to work on the city desk.

Watson was perhaps the last city-side reporter with the background to be a successful city editor. (Though not all good reporters make good editors.) He has been at the paper for several years, actually knows many of the prime movers in the area (if not personally, at least by reputation) and can write.

Wes is one of the best things to happen to The Sun newsroom in the past 10 years. He serves as a mentor to young reporters, an ace copy editor and an amusing writer/blogger, when he turns his attention in that direction. He has seen and done it all, but he isn’t tired, he isn’t jaded, and he’s astonishingly hip for a man who is in his 70s.

He also brings in treats (for which he isn’t thanked nearly often enough). Anyone in the newsroom who needs a sugar fix can mosey over to the treat station Wes sets up and have a choice of candy, crackers, cookies, pretzels.

Wes is basically a one-man morale-boost.

Steve Lambert, editor at The Sun, had a really bad couple of months there. These are two moves that make sense and should help a newspaper that is really struggling.

Here is the Lambert memo announcing the moves, as reported at the reporter-G blog:

I am very pleased to announce the promotion of George Watson to city editor of The Sun. George is a national award winning journalist who, since joining The Sun, has led some of our most ambitious enterprise and investigative work, including 2005’s groundbreaking series, “Unnatural Disasters.”

I am also extremely happy to announce the return of Wes Hughes to The Sun and to our city desk operation. Wes, too, has been a key figure in some of our most high-profile efforts, including “Teens Who Kill” and “Lost Among Us.” He will return as an editor on the city desk, eventually taking on some writing assignments as well.

Please join me in welcoming George and Wes to their new roles.

I’m not sure what about Wes’s role is new. Basically, he seems to be coming back (I think this is his third tour, since retiring from the L.A. Times) to do what he does. He and Lambert are very tight, and Wes’s “layoff” back on March 6 probably amounted to Lambert parking a guy who appears to have some financial flexibility … and bringing him back once the bottom line had stabilized.

Certainly, The Sun city desk, hammered by defections and the implosion of former city editor Nicole White, needs the help.