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d. Is a civil penalty sought to be imposed on the contractor by the state invalid?" 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 837. In light of this test, ANY PUBLIC AGENCY must require from bidders: "We hold that the statutory obligation to pay the prevailing wage does not depend on the contractor's assent, that the Director may validly and constitutionally determine that a given project is for a public work, and that the doctrine of equitable estoppel does not prevent the Director from proceeding against the contractor." 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 837 "Public works contracts awarded to private contractors must include stipulations requiring the contractors and subcontractors to pay their employees no less than the applicable prevailing wage rates, as determined by the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations. (SS 1773.2, 1775.) 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 837). VIII. What are risks ANY PUBLIC AGENCY is exposed to: "Lusardi argues that the actions of the District led to Lusardi's reliance, and that the acts of the District should be attributed to the Director (of Industrial Relations)." "The acts of one public agency will bind another public agency only when there is privity, or an identity of interests between the agencies" (City and County of San Francisco v. Grant Co. (1986) 181 Cal.App.3d 1085, "In this case, there is no privity or identity of interest between the District and the Director. Instead, there is a direct and palpable conflict. As its actions clearly evidence, the District had an interest in obtaining the lowest possible cost for construction of the hospital expansion project. The interest of the Director is in enforcing the prevailing wage laws. Contractors that do not pay the prevailing wage to their workers enjoy a competitive advantage over contractors that do, and may be preferred by local government agencies for public works projects, because the construction dollar will purchase more when a contractor paying less than the prevailing wage is selected. The facts of this case illustrate this conflict of interest: the District seeks to avoid the prevailing wage law, while the Director seeks to enforce it. 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 837). If ANY PUBLIC AGENCY classifies a Public Works project as a maintenance project and does not impose PREVAILING WAGE REQUIREMENTS in the contract, ANY PUBLIC AGENCY will be subject to "We emphasize, however, that the contractor may be entitled to indemnity from the public entity if it reasonably relied on the public entity's representations that the project was not subject to the prevailing wage law, and that when, as here, a contractor does rely in good faith on such representations, equity prohibits the imposition of statutory penalties against the contractor for failing to pay the prevailing wage." 4 Cal. Rptr.2d 837).