The Flanagan-Kennedy administration has apparently stopped funding private investigators to pursue questions related to legal residency – putting the city’s residency requirement into jeopardy, according to city hall sources who wished to remain unnamed.

This is a direct turnaround from the policies of the previous administration which enforced the city’s municipal residency requirement with vigor – and with the use of private investigations to ascertain the truth about those who claim to live here while working here and those who don’t.

“If the private investigator is not working to establish legal residency of those whose residency has been challenged, the entire residency bit is going to fall apart,” said the source.

Without the private investigator, city officials claim the investigations will be perfunctory and will likely lead to a double standard – those who keep to the residency conspicuously while others seek to evade it.

Many in government believe the residency law will not survive if it is left to the honor system.