Tall orders, tall hats

Matthew Bettenhausen is a central figure in some of the stateôs most
contentious issues, including the debate over
reform of the death penalty

by Aaron Chambers

Matthew Bettenhausen wears lots of hats, all of them tall. Increasingly, this top adviser to Gov. George Ryan is a central figure in some of the state’s most contentious issues. He wants to keep a low profile — he’s an aide, after all, not an elected official. Nonetheless, he manages to cast a long shadow across Ryan’s agenda, including the governor’s ongoing efforts to reform the death penalty.

As deputy governor for criminal justice and public safety, Bettenhausen advises Ryan on such matters as sentencing policies and terrorism preparations, and, on his boss’ behalf, oversees such agencies as the state police, corrections and nuclear safety.

Those are some pretty tall orders, no question. And lately, Bettenhausen seems to be just about everywhere.

He was the driving force behind the governor’s death penalty commission, which, in April, after more than two years of study, produced a thick volume of recommendations aimed at improving the state’s capital punishment system from start to finish. As the panel’s executive director, Bettenhausen corralled the members and coordinated their work.

A second commission the governor charged with rewriting the state’s entire Criminal Code, another of Bettenhausen’s responsibilities, is still at work.

And last October, Bettenhausen was designated this state’s homeland security coordinator, though the title is largely a formality because he was already doing that job before the September terrorist attacks.

Bettenhausen is up to the task — or tasks. He’s energetic. He’s bright. And he’s modest, crediting agency directors who work under his command. “That’s what truly makes my job great, as well as much easier — the number of great directors that I have out there,” he says.

Bettenhausen isn’t steering the ship by himself, certainly. He couldn’t accomplish much without the support of Ryan and his staff. Still, agency directors and others who deal closely with Bettenhausen cite his enthusiasm and diligence in moving such initiatives as death penalty reform and anti-terrorism efforts.

“He thinks nothing of calling you at all hours to say we’ve got to get moving on this and get something done,” says Rita Fry, Cook County’s public defender and a member of the capital punishment commission.

She isn’t the only one. Agency directors are just as likely to get calls from Bettenhausen with questions about topics of interest to the media.

He’s a troubleshooter first and foremost. One minute he’s helping to negotiate a new state budget. The next he’s planning state and local responses to potential attacks. That means organizing an expansive response network, beefing up law enforcement and equipping biological testing centers (see Illinois Issues, May, page 15).

Bettenhausen is prepared for such a role. His father was the fire chief in Tinley Park, where he was raised. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy, then went on to earn a law degree.

After law school, he worked briefly for the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal before beginning a clerkship for U.S. District Court Judge James Holderman. His work there impressed prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, which hired him after the two-year stint.

“Matt has always been a person who can handle multiple tasks with grace and great ability,” Holderman says. “It was clear early on that he was a very talented lawyer in many respects.”

Bettenhausen remained a federal prosecutor for more than 12 years, serving as associate chief of the criminal division, acting chief of criminal appeals, and deputy chief of the criminal receiving and appellate unit. He also acquainted himself with state law enforcement authorities.

In January 2000, a year after Ryan began his term as governor, he hired Bettenhausen. Condemned men were regularly walking off Illinois’ Death Row after getting their sentences and convictions thrown out — a total of 13 were exonerated. Ryan’s administration courted Bettenhausen to help craft a response to this phenomenon. A short time later, the governor called a moratorium on executions and formed the death penalty commission.

Beyond the death penalty, Bettenhausen was hired to handle a host of related issues. He’s charged, for example, with coordinating the efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement and public safety agencies — a role in which he employs his long-standing relationships with federal, state and larger local agencies.

In one such effort, Bettenhausen is working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to enlarge a database used to track discharged bullets and cartridges. The Integrated Ballistic Identification System, which is similar to networks used to track fingerprints or DNA profiles, is up and running in the northern part of Illinois. State officials are working to expand its use.

“Spent cartridges are left at a lot of crime scenes,” says state police Director Sam Nolen. “If we pick up cartridges at a crime scene, enter them into IBIS and later on that gun is used at another crime scene, then we’ll make a match and know that that gun was used at this crime scene and this crime scene.”

In his capacity as deputy governor, Bettenhausen does have authority over the state police and a number of other departments, though agency directors report directly to the governor. Still, he doesn’t manage the agencies’ daily operations. Rather, directors say, Bettenhausen serves more as a policy coordinator for agencies under his control. For example, Nolen says Bettenhausen helped secure extra funds the state police needed to hire more troopers and expand forensic laboratory capacity.

“He doesn’t try to run our agencies. He’s an advocate and a resource for us,” Nolen says. “Does he have the authority to come in here and give me a direction to do something? Yes, he does. But as a general rule we don’t operate that way. He’s our advocate. He helps us out. We keep him informed. I’m the director of the state police. Donnie Snyder is the director of corrections, and so on.”

Indeed, rounding up financial resources is a big part of the job. Last fall, Bettenhausen lobbied for a $16.9 million supplemental appropriation to fund homeland security measures. That includes $2.85 million for the Department of Public Health to enhance its laboratories for bioterrorism testing and another $2.5 million for the department to begin building a pharmaceutical cache.

Dr. John Lumpkin, the public health director, says he has worked closely with Bettenhausen only since the September terrorist attacks.

Typically, that department was not regarded as a public safety agency. Lumpkin says that when he met Bettenhausen, and recognized him as someone with a law enforcement background, he was concerned about how Bettenhausen could grasp public health issues. But Lumpkin says he found him to be a quick study.

Other colleagues make the same observation. At the same time, they say Bettenhausen is demanding. He wants the work done and done in the appropriate time frame.

“Just like all people who are very bright and very fast and who learn quickly, he expects the same from the people who work for him,” says Nolen, the state police director. “Some of the time he’s very demanding. We’ve come to expect that, and we’ve now figured out how to deal with it. We know when Matt wants something to get busy.”

Illinois Issues,June 2002

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