Jerroll Sanders—The Strength to Stand Firm. During my tenure at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (SBC) in St. Louis, MO, I managed large-scale projects. I received several promotions and awards for stellar performance. While at SBC, I detected problems with the company's promotion practices with respect to minorities. I alerted CEO Zane Barnes who immediately dispatched a team of executives to meet with me. He wanted to know why an employee with my positive record was complaining of unfair promotion practices. During my joint review of SBC's promotion practices with Barnes-appointed SBC executives, I was asked to develop an equitable promotion plan. Driven by a thirst to launch my own business, I instead opted for a corporate buyout and raised my shingle: I began Jireh Consulting, Inc., dba The Writing Company (TWC), a firm that provided a host of consulting and communications services. The initial investment of $500 turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue. With hard work, my firm became one of St. Louis's premier communications companies.

With my firm five years strong, I focused on the next plateau, determined to grow my firm into a Fortune 500 Company. I implemented an aggressive growth strategy that included marketing to the federal government. I leveraged my firm's unique quality systems, sound financial management, and strong reputation for successfully serving firms of all sizes, including Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Union Pacific, Monsanto Corporation, Hallmark Card Company, Bi-State Development Agency, Missouri Department of Transportation, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Marriott Corporation, to land the most high-profile communications contract in the nation—rewriting and redesigning IRS taxpayer notices. Taxpayer notices are the convoluted documents IRS sends to millions of taxpayers annually advising them of tax-related matters, i.e., they owe taxes, are entitled to a refund, or submitted a problematic tax return. During the rewrite process, my firm completely re-engineered IRS's notice redesign process. We made the notice-generation process more efficient and produced notices IRS and taxpayers celebrated as the best taxpayer notices IRS ever released. 

Before IRS awarded TWC (my firm) the contract, IRS executives required me to demonstrate TWC's abilities by rewriting two of the agency's most complex taxpayer notices without IRS's assistance. The sample notices drew rave reviews from IRS staff and executives agency-wide. After reviewing the samples, top IRS executives announced TWC had the contract.

The contract award came at the dismay of top Treasury Executives who resented IRS executive's decision to award the contract to a minority-owned firm. Throughout the contract, TWC met with un-ending sabotage: Treasury officials and selected IRS representatives took a number of actions designed to wrest the contract from TWC: IRS Gave TWC's work to other contractors and asked if they could do better (the contractors could not); IRS flew seven people from Washington, D.C. to TWC's site to siphon through TWC's records and files with the hope of finding wrongdoing or deficient processes (they found excellence and quality at every turn); IRS then commissioned IRS's Legal Counsel to conduct a contract review, hoping to find a reason to terminate the contract (Legal Counsel stated in writing that IRS, not TWC had breached the contract. But Legal Counsel said it would defend IRS's actions, whatever it decided with regard to the contract.) TWC continued to perform within budget and on schedule despite IRS's and Treasury's hostile efforts.

On February 24, 1999, almost one year after TWC secured the contract, IRS terminated the contract for convenience of the government (T4C). It was the first contract IRS terminated for convenience in 20 years. At the same time, contractors who evidenced severe performance deficiencies and cost overruns in the millions retained their contracts.

Determined to retrieve my firm's contract and bring greater equity into the federal procurement process, I embarked upon a persistent effort to obtain an investigation. I managed to secure volumes of information from IRS's files confirming contracting malfeasance of the highest order. I aggressively contested IRS's actions and shamelessly named government officials involved in the illegal contracting activity, many of whom remain at the top echelons of government.

IRS, Treasury, and some law enforcement officials retaliated: They colluded to destroy my business, slandered me throughout my community, assigned me false tax debts, which they used to justify attaching liens to the home I own in St. Louis, and persisted until they destroyed my good credit and severely damaged me financially. Years later, I discovered IRS and Treasury officials diverted my contract to a start-up firm owned by their close associate, Susan Kleimann. Her firm continues to reap millions from my firm's innovations, many of which she claims as her own. Federal officials and even judges have colluded with IRS and Treasury to conceal the illegal contracting activity. 

The encounter that ruined my excellent credit, destroyed my firm of nine years, and wreaked havoc on my life sharpened my vision and intensified my determination to ensure others were not subject to similar encounters. I wrote a book (The Physics of Money: If You've Got My Dollar, I Don't) and launched ONUS, a national organization devoted to ensuring everyone is permitted to run the same race as others, governed by the same rules, eligible for the same rewards. I am confident I can change lives and I want to begin in Detroit. Detroit can have beautiful neighborhoods and recreational facilities! Detroit can have the best schools! Detroit can have a thriving economy! Detroit can have nearly non-existent crime! Detroit can have avenues with coffee shops and tea rooms that Detroiters venture into during late evening without fear of being accosted!

If this sounds like the Detroit you are longing for, come out on February 24, 2009—rain, snow or sleet—and vote Jerroll M. Sanders for mayor of Detroit.