Bianca Janeczek joins the Aug. 4 City Council meeting to introduce herself after Mayor John Vieau appoints her to the new role. The City Council will make its official vote on her appointment in the near future.
Photo credit: ChicopeeTV
CHICOPEE — Chicopee is on the verge of a new chief human resources officer after Mayor John Vieau announced the appointment of Bianca Janeczek at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting.
However, the City Council decided to table the official vote on the appointment so a special meeting can be held for further scrutiny.
According to the agenda, Janeczek’s term is supposed to start on Aug. 10 and run until June 30, 2029.
The announcement of the appointment comes after former Human Resources Director Karla Bourassa moved to Florida with her family.
“I wish her the best in her future endeavors in the sunny state of Florida,” Vieau said at the meeting.
Looking to fill the vacancy, Vieau shared that the city received approximately 40 resumes for the role. All the resumes were vetted by a panel that he assembled, which included the police chief, fire chief, DPW superintendent, city treasurer, Vieau and his chief of staff.
He said that the panel vetted all the resumes and narrowed the pool down to six for the first phase of interviews. That group was then narrowed down to two candidates.
After a second interview with each finalist with the Human Resources Department, it was unanimously decided that Janeczek was the choice.
Janeczek is a Chicopee resident with a background in human resources. She recently served as the human resources executive at McGill Hose and Coupling, a manufacturing company in East Longmeadow, for two years.
“I’m excited to have her aboard,” Vieau stated.
During the City Council meeting, City Councilor Sam Shumsky and the council tabled the appointment, hoping that Vieau would host a special meeting so councilors could get to know Janeczek and ask questions.
Although Janeczek has not received confirmation from the City Council, she will still start on the intended date of Aug. 10; however, her tenure is only 90 days until the council vote is sorted out.
Her full contract will begin pending the special meeting and council approval.
If appointed and confirmed, Janeczek would be the city’s fourth director in five years.
Janeczek would take over for Bourassa, who left the role in June after her appointment in April 2025. Bourassa had been working with the city for three years in the Human Resources Department. She started as a senior human resources generalist before a promotion to deputy chief and chief human resources officer.
Bourassa took over the Human Resources Department during a time of investigations and leadership turnover.
The position became vacant for Bourassa after Stephen Zajchowski, who was hired as chief of human resources in July 2023, was terminated in November 2024 as the result of two investigations conducted by retired Judge Mary-Lou Rup.
After the dismissal, the City Council approved a mayor’s order for the appropriation of $100,000 to the human resources expense account for special services from available funds in the Human Resources Salary Account.
In 2025, Chief of Staff Mike Pise read a statement from Vieau that said a corrective action plan was prepared for the chief of human resources following the first investigation. However, Pise said that “Within a matter of a few weeks, other serious issues developed which created a second investigation. The findings and recommendations of the second investigation necessitated a change in leadership.”
In 2023, former Chief Human Resources Officer Paul Winspeare left after less than two years on the job. It was revealed that the city had been paying health and dental premiums to former employees, retirees and their dependents after they had died or left the job. The problem has since been fixed, according to the city.
Chicopee has since had to hire a consultant because it has not been able to retain a human resources director for more than 18 months at a time.
Now, the city hopes Janeczek could break that trend.
