BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A voluntarily dismissed lawsuit against the city of Buffalo alleges Mayor Byron Brown's administration repeatedly misused federal funds, gave developers preferential treatment and forced the whistleblower out in retaliation.

A spokesperson for the mayor said the federal government's decision not to intervene in the civil lawsuit following years of review and the subsequent dismissal speak for themselves. But the attorney for the original plaintiff, former Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency Executive Director Nona Watson, said her decision not to continue moving forward does not mean the city is exonerated.

Watson filed the lawsuit with the Western District of New York in November 2019 claiming a "well-orchestrated fraud" perpetrated by the city against BURA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. BURA acts as the city's administrator in disbursing federal HUD grants and funding.

She alleged the city's executive director for the office of strategic planning, Brendan Mehaffy, who also served some time as the agency's vice chair, utilized those multiple roles to select, develop and approve development projects without any checks or balances. Watson claimed Mehaffy and the Brown administration steered contracts to preferred developers, including Creative Structure Services, founded by David Pawlik, Buffalo's former deputy commissioner of housing and community development.

It claimed Pawlik's company was awarded 20% of Home Investment Partnership Program funds starting in 2006. According to the lawsuit, the city received more than $3.6 million each year.

Brown reiterated his earlier statements at a press conference Monday following his state of the city address.

"Ms. Watson's civil case was voluntarily dismissed," he said. "That says all you need to know about that issue."

Watson's attorney, Harvey Sanders, said he doesn't know if there's any connection to when investigators from HUD, the FBI and IRS executed search warrants at a BURA office in city hall on Nov. 6, 2019, nearly two weeks prior to Watson filing her lawsuit and a little more than a year after she claimed she was pushed out of her position with the agency. Sanders noted logistically there would likely be a lot of planning to coordinate and carry out such a raid.

Investigators spent hours in the office, eventually emerging with boxes on overpacked carts, several bags and a suitcase. There have been no updates from the federal government since.

The Western District U.S. Attorney's office had no comment on the dismissed suit. Sanders said his client had been hopeful the office might intervene after holding onto the case for so long but since it did not she chose not to go forward.

He said the decision does not mean the mayor or his administration has been cleared of wrongdoing.

“The implications made in a 4-year-old lawsuit about Sinatra & Co.’s relationship with the Brown Administration is baseless, as evidenced by the government’s decision not to intervene in the case and the plaintiff’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit. Sinatra & Co. has invested over $100MM into the redevelopment of our great city over the last decade and, in the process, has created 50 high-paying jobs, along with hundreds of other employment opportunities indirectly. We are incredibly proud of our projects and contributions to the City of Buffalo. As for my past political donations, I am a proud supporter of members of both political parties, at all levels of government, who believe in the betterment of our community and this great country," Nick Sinatra, another developer named in the suit, said.