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'I'm not at liberty to say anything at this time,' said his mother, Gladys Stewart of Seattle. Some friends and family also declined to talk about him. Out of respect for his privacy or fear of repercussions, numerous employees and former employees declined to speak about Stewart or his business.

He has often obtained court orders sealing legal documents. 'Tom is private and prefers to keep it that way.'Īs in many privately held companies, Stewart carefully guards business records, often declining to confirm even basic information such as how many people he employs. 'As a company, we tend to stay real quiet,' says Steve Boyer, Services Group's director of corporate communication. Requests for information about SGA and the company's political-action committee (PAC) also were declined. Through a spokesman for Services Group of America (SGA), Stewart declined repeated requests for an interview. Early last week, Stewart and the president of his company, Services Group of America, Inc., agreed to pay $60,000 to settle the civil infractions.įrustrating the city Ethics and Elections Commission, the immaculately groomed Stewart offered vague answers about how he financed the local campaign. Violating state laws, a top Stewart executive arranged for friends to be secretly reimbursed for making donations to the campaign. The campaign had been described as a grass-roots movement but, in fact, it was largely a creation of Stewart's money. One hidden piece of Stewart's world came into view last week when he admitted funneling $60,000 in contributions to an unsuccessful campaign to change the election of City Council members from an at-large to a district system. A man who works behind the scenes, often through intermediaries who are handsomely rewarded or summarily dismissed. Through interviews and public documents, a portrait emerges of a man who pursues position but shuns the spotlight. Stewart controls a world of wealth and power, where influence is felt but not broadly displayed. The man who tried to buy a Seattle election often sleeps with a gun under his pillow, sells pizza to the city's schools, earns $4 million a year, and maintains a mysterious presence in the region's politics.

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