martinez

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Mel Martinez

MSNBC bio
Bush’s housing chief came to U.S. as refugee
Mel Martinez motivated to return kindness shown by America
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Dec. 20 — Mel Martinez came to the United States from Cuba in 1962 as a teen in an airlift of children known as Operation Pedro Pan, living in a foster home and working his way through school. On Wednesday, he was selected as secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President-elect George W. Bush.
       MARTINEZ, 54, has only been in office a couple of years as Orange County chairman, a position akin to mayor of the county, which is home to Orlando and Walt Disney World.
       Martinez was among some 14,000 unaccompanied children sent out of Cuba between December 1960 and October 1962 as part of Operation Pedro Pan.
       Fearing their children would be indoctrinated into Cuban President Fidel Castro’s communist system or dispatched to the countryside to teach illiterate peasants how to read and write, desperate parents obtained quick exit visa waivers to send their children to the United States.
       Martinez eventually graduated from law school at Florida State University and moved to Orlando to practice law in 1973. He was first elected as chairman of Orange County in 1998 and quickly climbed the rungs of power in the state’s GOP power ladder.
       An anti-Castro Republican, Martinez was one of the first officials to call on the Clinton administration to allow Elian Gonzalez’ U.S. relatives to keep custody of the child, who survived a raft sinking near Cuba that killed his mother as she tried flee to the United States. Martinez also paid for Elian’s famous trip to Disney World last year out of his own pocket, reported NBC News producer Robert Windrem.
‘PAYBACK’ FOR KINDNESS
       Little-known outside of Florida, Martinez is thought of by those who work with him as “a regular guy” who, although a quick study, tends to delegate authority with a hands-off management style.
       Close friends and family members said Martinez is described as intensely motivated by a desire to repay the country that took him and his family in. And they say he understands the people the housing agency serves, because his family had little after fleeing Cuba.
       After four years in a foster home, Martinez was joined by his family in Orlando after they managed to leave Cuba. His father, a veterinarian in Cuba, first could only find work at a farm, before later getting a job at the state Department of Agriculture.
       “We lived in a little house ... he and I shared a room,” said Martinez’ younger brother, Ralph, an Orlando lawyer. But the family got the things it needed.
       “When we came, America just opened their arms to us,” said Ralph Martinez, recalling in an interview that when the family needed a washing machine, one was donated to them.
       He said he and his older brother “have always had a sense of community because of how gracious everyone was to us.” He said that was what drove his brother to sponsor a Vietnamese refugee family and help them buy a house.
       “Payback for what we received,” the younger Martinez said.
ENOUGH EXPERIENCE?
       Still, his selection was already being questioned because Martinez has little experience that would seem to qualify him for running the federal housing agency. He worked his way through college managing the apartment building he lived in, and was chairman of the Orlando Housing Authority for two years in the 1980s.
       But his supporters argue he knows a lot about urban development and has dealt with it intimately in fast-growing Orange County. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tapped him this year to head a statewide commission looking at growth management.
       “You cannot be a local elected official and not deal with housing,” said Jacob Stuart, a friend of Martinez and president of the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce.
       In fact, his interest in the growth issue may have garnered him some enemies. Some central Florida developers have been annoyed by Martinez’ support for a partial moratorium on new residential projects in already crowded school districts.
       But he is willing to listen to others’ points of view, said Homer Hartage, a Democratic county councilman in Orange County.
       “They’re going to find he takes a lot of time listening, he’s flexible,” said Hartage. “He can work across the Democrat-Republican aisle.”
       NBC News producer Robert Windrem and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

online newshour bio
SECRETARY OF THE HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT-DESIGNATE
MEL MARTINEZ
George W. Bush has selected Mel Martinez, the Cuban-born chairman of Orange County, Florida, to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Mel Martinez is the Chairman of Orange County, Florida. He is the elected Chief Executive of a government that provides complete urban services to over 860,000 people and is the home of many high tech enterprises and numerous tourist attractions. The county seat is Orlando, one of thirteen municipalities in the county. Five hundred and forty thousand (540,000) people live in the unincorporated areas of the county.
Since his election to a four-year term in 1998, Chairman Martinez has concentrated on public safety, growth management, the needs of children and families, clean neighborhoods, improved transportation and streamlining government.
In 1962, at age 15, Mel Martinez left his Cuban homeland. Alone and speaking virtually no English, he was taken in by foster families until he was reunited with his family in Orlando in 1966. Martinez graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 1973. During his 25 years of law practice in Orlando, he was very involved in community activities.
Martinez is currently serving as Chairman of Governor Jeb Bush’s Growth Management Study Commission. Among other duties, he also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and on the Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority.
He and his wife Kitty live in Orlando and have three children.

CNN bio
Mel Martinez, 54, has been nominated as secretary of housing and urban development. Martinez is currently the chairman of the Orange County, Florida board of commissioners, and co-chaired Bush's campaign in Florida. He is also said to be closely allied with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the president-elect. A Cuban-American who fled Fidel Castro's regime in 1962, Martinez played a role in the Elian Gonzalez controversy, when he called on the Clinton administration to allow Elian's U.S. relatives to retain custody of the boy.