Cortes Story Fact Check: From the Email InBox

Paw: The article about Ramos and Cortes is interesting however there is one fact that is easy to dispute right off. Bea or Bertha Cortes does not have a Real Estate Brokers License according to the California Agency which reports such data. She has as stated discontinued official association with Terra Loma under which she had been a Sales Associate in the past on the same Data Base. So who ever told the San Bernardino Sentinel that she got her own License Lied to them. One could assume that miss information came from Mrs Cortes the way the article reads but that would be an assumption on the part of the reader.

Yes I do think that the assumption that the Ramos/Cortes relationship is some how improper. What that relationship involves I don't know. What I do know is her business dealings at Terra Loma and as a City Council member by far cross the conflict of interest threshold. Their relationship of what ever kind it is clearly has impeded a full investigation and charges being filed against her while lessor violations by Jim Miller were filed in an extravagant form. Even if the only relationship is "Political" it is a relationship that has been used inappropriately to influence the Official Function of the Office Ramos Holds as the DA. That is sufficient cause for there to be further investigation into their relationship.

From the Sentinel:

Three months ago, after a minor controversy broke out in Grand Terrace following publicity about Cortes’ votes to approve a contract for and payments to the company she was professionally affiliated with, Cortes ceased voting on the consent calendar items related to Terra Loma, and the city’s contract for services with Terra Loma was cancelled shortly thereafter. In the same time frame, Cortes obtained her own real estate broker’s license and ended her affiliation with Terra Loma.