Washington ? Last week, I took advantage of the absence of both Congress and the president to hunt up the mystery man of the Bush Cabinet.

Since Sept. 11, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and John Ashcroft have understandably overshadowed their colleagues in the domestic departments, because of their national security responsibilities. But most of the others have broken into the news from time to time, either because of controversies in their jurisdictions (anthrax, airline safety, energy policy) or because big bills were moving in Congress (education, agriculture).

Almost nothing has been heard, I realized, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since the first round of stories hailing the appointment of Mel Martinez as the new secretary. The Orlando lawyer is a compelling personal story. He came to this country as a youth of 15, fleeing his native Cuba. He learned the language, worked his way through law school, became wealthy and was elected as chairman of the Orange County Commission  in effect, mayor of metropolitan Orlando. A friend and political ally of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, he was co-chairman of the president’s campaign in that crucial state and a natural choice to be the first Cuban-American Cabinet member.

HUD is accustomed to having high-profile political leaders, having gone from Jack Kemp in Bush I to Henry Cisneros to Andrew Cuomo under President Clinton. All three were high-energy people, brimming with enthusiasm and ambition, who saw a role for themselves larger than managing a second-tier department with a history as a horrendous bureaucracy. In turn, they became prominent spokesmen and advocates for the cities and their populations, tirelessly promoting economic development or renewal of depressed areas or reduction in homelessness.

You left a session with any of the three with your head buzzing with inspirational stories of grass-roots activists or innovative local leaders  to say nothing of bold ideas for making the cities bloom.

That is not Mel Martinez’s way. He is a friendly, low-key man of 54, comfortable with himself and seemingly content to let things develop at their own pace. Far from being interested in the limelight, he did not get an assistant secretary for public affairs sworn in until the morning of the day I interviewed him. Officials of groups that deal regularly with the department tell me he has had to be coaxed to come talk to their conventions.

His view of his constituency is remarkably sanguine. Mayors of both parties have been lobbying hard for help, saying that the combination of increased domestic security costs for police and firefighters and an economic slowdown has left them in a jam. When I asked Martinez how he thought the cities were doing, he said, “I think the downturn was short enough that I don’t think we’ve seen a systemic impact.” By and large, he said, cities are doing better than in the past, “not necessarily because of federal policy, but because of local coming-together.”

His goals are commendable but modest  and appear to have come straight from the Bush campaign or the White House Domestic Policy Council. One aim is to eliminate chronic homelessness in the next 10 years, by combining the social services run by the Department of Health and Human Services with temporary housing financed by HUD. A coordinator for the effort has just come aboard and there’s no new money in the budget for it, “but I don’t think it’s basically a money problem,” Martinez said.

Another goal, this one a keynote of the campaign, is to increase home ownership, especially among minorities. The budget contains $200 million for helping families with down payments, but that effort, too, is still in the roll-out stage and has not yet been authorized by Congress.

I asked Martinez about a third White House initiative  to shift funds from a dozen or so of the most affluent communities now receiving Community Development Block Grant money and to allocate it instead to the poverty-stricken “colonias” along the Mexican border. The proposal has run into opposition on Capitol Hill from the cities that would lose funds, and Martinez seemed resigned to losing the battle this year, though he added, “We’re not giving up yet.”

When I asked Martinez what had surprised him most since taking the job, he said he had been “shocked” by the extent of the past population flight from Northeastern cities such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The president, he said, had been equally stunned to see “block after block just abandoned” during a campaign visit to Baltimore. But, he assured me, “I think the worst of that is behind us.”

On that upbeat note, we shook hands. The secretary said he was off the next day for Miami, because Atty. Gen. Ashcroft had invited him to join in a routine naturalization ceremony for several hundred new citizens.

 David Broder is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.