The Mayor’s Commission on Construction Industry Diversity has just held its first public hearing to take testimony on race and gender discrimination in Philadelphia regarding economic participation. The goal of the public hearing process is to make real-life experiences a part of the public record which will lead to a report due in September that will be delivered to the Mayor and City Council. Most of the commission’s work will focus on workforce utilization, which is also the subject matter of hearings to be convened by City Council after the report is due. Somewhat obscured in the process is the fact that workforce utilization is only one part of the economic participation equation, diversity in business contracting matters as well – if not more.