When Aimee Plourde walked into her interview for the position of chief financial officer of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection in April 2022, she had an advantage the other finalist did not: She had access to the questions she was about to be asked.
That’s because four days before that interview, Marybeth Bonsignore, the human resources officer who was in charge of the hiring process, had emailed the questions to Plourde, according to an internal affairs report released Wednesday by state police attorneys.
Plourde got the job a month later, making her one of the highest-ranked civilians in the department, which oversees the Connecticut State Police and Homeland Security. She stayed in the position until December 2023, when Ronnell Higgins, the new DESPP Commissioner, ordered an internal affairs investigation into how she was hired.
The 206-page internal affairs report released Wednesday concludes that several state employees colluded to hire Plourde — who, according to her own statement to investigators, was friends with Bonsignore — as the DESPP chief financial officer. In that role, she oversaw the budget and spending for the agency.
Investigators sustained three charges against Bonsignore, including “fraud or collusion in connection with any examination or appointment in the classified service.” Bonsignore remains a state employee on paid administrative leave, earning $146,000 a year.
Department of Administrative Services spokesman Leigh Appleby said Wednesday that an agreement has been reached with Bonsignore.
“The review and decision-making process concluded on November 27, 2024, with a negotiated stipulated agreement stating that the employee will remain on paid administrative leave until her retirement on February 1, 2025,” Appleby said.
Bonsignore’s attorney, Bruce Newman, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
They also sustained four charges against Plourde, who resigned in June 2024 after the internal affairs investigation was completed. Her attorney, Henry Murray, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The investigation also sustained two charges against Scott Devico, an executive assistant to then-DESPP Commissioner James Rovella and a member of the committee that hired Plourde, for “misleading investigators during his interview” and for “conduct unbecoming a DESPP employee” for texting Bonsignore updates during Plourde’s interview.
A charge that Devico failed to perform his duties in his position as a hiring manager was not sustained.
Devico said Wednesday he was unaware of the connection between Plourde and Bonsignore.
“I didn’t know that she (Plourde) had the questions when she was being interviewed for the position, and I didn’t find out until nearly two years later,” Devico said.
The report includes text messages and emails from government and private accounts that show Plourde did not have the relevant experience to perform the job, which state officials referred to as “the backbone” of the state agency.
One of those text exchanges occurred between Devico and Bonsignore during Plourde’s final interview on April 11, 2022.
Despite being tipped to the questions she’d be asked, Plourde was not doing well in the interview, prompting Devico to text Bonsignore in the middle of the interview:
“I don’t think I am going to be able to justify putting Aimee ahead of (the other candidate) … She doesn’t seem to have the Core CT, procurement, etc. experience”.
Bonsignore replied, “Oh no. If the team doesn’t feel confident in Aimee — can you tell them you want another date to discuss it — so that you don’t have to commit to recommending or not recommending anyone right now?”
Devico responded back, “It’s going to be hard because we have been discussing each one after the interview.”
Devico also noted that officials from the state’s Equal Employment Opportunities office were involved in the interview. The other finalist was a Black woman, according to the internal affairs report.
Bonsignore texted back, “This is not good. Aimee would be much better than [redacted] at running the whole unit — she just doesn’t have the technical skills.”
Threats and confessions
Plourde was hired in May 2022 as the CFO. Her tenure came to an abrupt end shortly after Plourde met for the first time in December 2023 with newly named Commissioner Higgins to go over the agency’s budget.
Higgins told investigators he was concerned when Plourde couldn’t answer basic questions about the budget in that meeting.
The next night, Plourde approached Bonsignore at the retirement party for outgoing Commissioner Rovella and threatened her, according to DAS employees interviewed by state police as part of the internal investigation.
Erica D’Angelo, Bonsignore’s boss, told investigators that Bonsignore had told her that Plourde had approached her and asked for her help, saying, “If you don’t, then I am going to tell people what you did to help me get hired.”
When D’Angelo told DAS administrators about that conversation, they notified Higgins, who placed Plourde on administrative leave on Dec. 7, 2023 and ordered the internal affairs investigation.
Plourde was a 17-year state employee, earning about $140,000 annually, when she was placed on leave. She had been a tax unit manager at the Department of Revenue Services, earning about $116,000, when she got the DESPP job in May 2022.
Bonsignore, a 33-year state employee, was placed on paid administrative leave that day, and her case is being handled by the Office of Labor Relations.
Decico eventually left state service when Higgins sent him a letter last June declining to reappoint him.
When interviewed by state police detectives, Bonsignore claimed that she sent Plourde the “live” questions by mistake and had planned to just send her sample questions to help her prepare for her interview.
According to the report, detectives asked Bonsignore if she thought the hiring process was conducted fairly, to which she responded, “Well it certainly doesn’t appear that way, but that was not my intent and I am very remorseful.”
She added, “It was not my intent to set this job up for Aimee to get this job. I had no personal stake in this.”
Bonsignore downplayed her relationship with Plourde, saying that they “only knew each other professionally” and were not friends.
But that’s not what Plourde told detectives when she was interviewed. She said she attended Bonsignore’s 50th birthday party and that Bonsignore attended her son’s wedding.
Detectives asked Plourde what she did when she realized Bonsignore had sent her the questions for her interview four days in advance.
Plourde responded that she opened the attachment containing the interview questions and thought, “Oh my gosh they are interview questions.”
Plourde said she only read the first three questions before closing the attachment.
“Ms. Plourde stated she was in shock when it happened,” the report says.
Investigators then showed Plourde an email she sent her husband, asking him to print all of the questions the day after she received them from Bonsignore. She told detectives that she “only read the first few and put the printed questions into a drawer.”
She denied using the questions during her virtual interview with the three-member committee on April 11, 2022.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
