Commissioned by Mayor Harold Washington and directed by Economic Development Commissioner Robert Mier, who convened key department heads in a series of retreats in the winter and spring of 1984. Mier provided them with copies of the transition document The Washington Papers to emphasize themes like "jobs, not real estate" and "balanced development" that had emerged in community meetings and during the 1983 election campaign. Washington had caught the neighborhood sentiment and sought to reverse decades-long practices of the earlier Richard J. Daley political machine which gave priority to downtown and corporate interests over those of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Chicago Works Together was framed to implement the campaign commitments, and became a thematic guidepost supporting such efforts through a set of city agencies.