The Massachusetts Attorney General is investigating the town of Oak Bluffs for possible violations to state bidding laws in connection with roof work done at the former town library, electrical work at the town harbor, and a project connecting the high school, YMCA and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to the town sewer. The investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by a former town selectman.

Oak Bluffs town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport advised the selectmen of the investigation at their meeting Tuesday. He said the problems likely came about because the town has not kept abreast of changes in the state public procurement law.

“[Town administrator Michael Dutton] is the chief procurement officer but department heads as well are engaging in bidding practices, and I think there is not sufficient familiarity with some of the changes that have come in the past couple years,” Mr. Rappaport said. “The laws on public bidding change and it’s important we keep up with them. On the major projects we’ve been generally good but the thresholds [for triggering the need for public bids] have actually gone lower and some of the department heads were unaware of that.”

Mr. Dutton, who is also an attorney, conceded that by law the electrical work at the wastewater project, which involved installing a pump station and extending piping to the high school area facilities in the spring of 2010, should have been put out to a competitive bid. Any public works construction contract estimated at more than $10,000 must go out to bid. The invoice for the electrical work on the $770,000 wastewater project was $55,193.

After the meeting Mr. Dutton explained the deficiencies in the town’s practices. “There was an assumption on the part of the department heads that Powers Electric was the town electrician based on rate quotes, and so they used Powers for the work after getting appropriate quotes from Powers. Since the wastewater project exceeded the bid threshold, it should have gone to separate bid.”

He said the electrical work at the harbor did not trigger the need for a competitive bid, but here again, Mr. Dutton conceded that the town failed to follow state guidelines.

“It is fine as long as we solicited three quotes, which I do not believe we did. Again, the assumption was that Powers was the town electrician. Bottom line is that we did not do the bid process correctly,” he said.

In the spring of 2009 at an Oak Bluffs selectmen’s meeting questions were raised about extensive roofing work that had already been carried out on the old library before a formal request for proposals was submitted for the project to convert the building to affordable apartments and a pharmacy. At the time Mr. Dutton said the work had been contracted to the Island firm of Alwardt Carpentry but that it did not require an RFP because it was emergency work.

On Tuesday Mr. Rappaport made oblique reference to the project.

“Some of our department heads are unaware of procedures to follow in the event of emergencies,” he said. “There are ways to get exemptions’”

Mr. Dutton said the state has requested copies of several invoices for the work on the three projects.

The investigation stems from a bid protest filed with the attorney general in March by former selectman Kerry Scott over renovation work on the town hall in the fall of 2009 that she claims was not properly put out to public bid. Ms. Scott said the work which was estimated at some $8,000, actually cost more than $33,000, and she charged that Mr. Dutton had not been “forthright” with taxpayers. In April Mr. Dutton, Ms. Scott and Mr. Rappaport appeared at a hearing in Boston on the bid protest.

Mr. Dutton said the town hall work was done properly.

“Our contention is that there was no issue with the electric in town hall, and that the highway department properly engaged the company with the lowest hourly rate to do the work,” he wrote to the Gazette in an e-mail this week.

After the hearing in April, the state’s scope widened to include the other town projects.

Ms. Scott said this week that her goal is to make sure the town does things the right way. “I don’t want people in stocks or charges brought. I was really clear with the attorney general’s office about how this was handled,” she said. “The assistant attorney general told me that they would offer remedies which would include training. The public benefit will be awareness on the part of contractors, or anyone who does business in Oak Bluffs, how it should be done because it was clear right from the beginning there were deficiencies.”

On Tuesday Mr. Rappaport recommended that the selectmen invite a bidding and procurement expert to hold a work session with Mr. Dutton and town department heads. Selectmen and Mr. Dutton agreed.

“That would be extremely useful,” said Mr. Dutton.

Mr. Rappaport said he could not speculate on whether the town would be penalized for any violations, and emphasized that the investigation is ongoing.

In an e-mail to the Gazette Mr. Dutton said current state bidding laws which discourage local contractors were “a sore point” for him.

“The unintended down side of the bidding laws is that most Island contractors are not qualified to bid . . .” he wrote in part. “I hope the Island’s elected officials will lobby the legislature for some sort of relief for the Vineyard.”

Ms. Scott characterized the bidding process differently.

“In municipal finance there are built in checks and balances meant to protect taxpayers and voters and they matter to me,” she said.