As details came to light this week about even more alleged violations to state public bidding laws in Oak Bluffs, town selectmen were set to meet again this morning behind closed doors to consider the possible dismissal of their town administrator who is at the center of the controversy.

The executive session, the fifth in a series of closed-doors sessions to discuss the performance of Michael Dutton, is set for 9:30 a.m. today.

Meanwhile, at a special selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday this week, town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport released an anonymous letter of complaint that was sent to the Massachusetts Attorney General outlining a pattern of alleged patronage for four contractors in town who were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for work performed on town projects. “This town has been giving work to town relatives and friends without putting any of it out to bid,” the May 11 letter says in part. “Please understand that I am a born and raised Islander who is in construction and cannot divulge my name for fear of retaliation, but I am very upset that we unrelated people never get a chance to bid on these jobs.”

The fresh complaint comes after the attorney general issued a strong reprimand to the town last month for violating state bidding laws on a number of contracts for projects between 2009 to 2011. The town was not fined for the violations but was ordered to file quarterly reports and put town employees through a training and education program on the state public procurement laws.

Mr. Rappaport has been asked by the attorney general’s office to investigate the latest complaint, and on Tuesday he reported to the selectmen that although his investigation was incomplete it appeared that at least some of the work in question may have been improperly bid or not put out to bid at all.

The work cited in the anonymous letter and now under investigation by Mr. Rappaport was carried out by Farrissey Telecom Inc., Crossland Landscape, Rebello’s Island Hydroseed Inc., and Russell Rogers Septic Solutions.

Mr. Rappaport said it appeared that over $450,000 of work contracted to Farrissey Telecom related to the sewering project at the YMCA, high school and community services had been properly bid, but that he was less certain for other contracts.

“In 2009, 2010 and 2011 there were a lot [of payments made to Rebello’s Island Hydroseed Inc.] and I have not been able to find anything that those were bid, but I haven’t completed it,” Mr. Rappaport told selectmen. Between 2009 and 2011 the town paid more than $210,000 to the company. Mr. Rappaport was uncertain what those payments were for, as he was still collecting invoices.

“A lot of that predated the A.G.’s office report,” he said. “So I think their investigation prompted a response from those within town government not to give out these types of work.”

Mr. Rappaport was also unsure about the status in prior years of work at Ocean Park awarded to Crossland Landscape.

“This spring the work done by Crossland was awarded a contract following a public bid and I believe they were the only bidder,” he said. “In 2011 those amounts paid were only $3,200 but in prior years the amounts paid were considerable.”

Invoices show that the town paid Crossland a little more than $231,500 between 2009 and 2011 for work at Ocean Park.

Between 2009 and 2011 the town also paid more than $88,800 to Russell Rogers Septic Solutions.

“Some of that may have been bid, I just don’t know,” said Mr. Rappaport, who promised to present the selectmen with a complete report about the allegations in the coming weeks.

Selectman Walter Vail wondered what the new allegations mean for the town

“Will [the Attorney General’s office] want some response from us other than what we’ve already agreed to do which is to have training sessions [on procurement procedure]?” he asked. “Are they going to slap our hands?”

“I can’t speak for the office,” said Mr. Rappaport, “But I think that they are primarily concerned that our procurement process on a going-forward basis is what it should be.”

Mr. Rappaport said that he did not expect any further punitive measures for the cash-strapped town. Selectman and board chairman Kathy Burton sounded a note of exasperation and renewed a vow of openness in town government.

“I think it’s important that this all comes out, it all stops and we move forward,” she said. “It’s as simple as that. I don’t want any more of this. Enough already; I’d like to move on with things being done the right way.”

Mr. Vail said he had recently placed a telephone call to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) and spoke with director of accounts Gerard Perry about the town’s ongoing fiscal crisis.

“He said, ‘Funny you should call, we were talking about Oak Bluffs in our meeting,’ He said that what concerned them was the negative $900,000-plus in free cash that we all know about,” Mr. Vail said. “He’s also concerned about whether our budget is really closed in 2012. The DOR agrees with us that that is of primary importance to hire an accountant right now — it’s a must. I mentioned that we didn’t have it in our 2012 budget, nor did we even have the services of [a contract accountant] in our budget.”

He said Mr. Perry has recommended that the town borrow $53,000 from the finance committee reserve fund to hire accounting services and then repay the committee by appropriating the money at a special town meeting in the fall. Mr. Vail said he would tell the finance committee of the plan at its meeting on Thursday.

“I took this as more of a directive than a suggestion,” said Mr. Vail.