PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh police commander who fought her demotion and won a reversal with a whistleblower lawsuit is revealing what she's doing with the money the city paid her to settle.

Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly said the city's $85,000 settlement addresses what she calls an "injustice" done to her for acting in good faith in the public interest. She's exercising the free speech rights she fought for, but she isn't keeping the cash for herself.

WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo learned that McNeilly is spending $4,000 of the money to publish an open letter to city residents in Friday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

UPDATE: Early Thursday evening, the Post-Gazette confirmed that it will publish McNeilly's letter, but it won't be able to do so until sometime next week.

On Thursday morning, Mayo obtained a copy of the message that McNeilly was about to send to Pittsburghers.

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Related: Read The Entire Letter

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"I do not intend to become enriched personally as a result of this redress of justice," McNeilly said in the letter.

The letter also said that McNeilly has decided to create an endowment from the settlement money that will make donations for years to come to several charities.

Among those benefiting from the money, McNeilly said, will be the American Civil Liberties Union; local religious and service organizations; Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc., which assists families of officers killed in the line of duty; and the local Multiple Sclerosis Society.

McNeilly said her husband, former Police Chief Robert McNeilly, and her brother and her attorneys are making personal, non-tax-deductible donations to the endowment.

Cmdr. McNeilly's letter also invites Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Police Chief Nate Harper and their attorneys to make charitable donations.

But the money is only the start of the story. Cmdr. McNeilly's letter also has a message to federal and state prosecutors, whom she hopes will look into her allegations of improper influence by the mayor's office in police matters.

She writes that the city's financial settlement was "only a redress for a time-consuming and expensive diversion from the core issues."

Her letter quotes the federal judge's ruling that her whistleblower case was about "allegations of wrongdoing and improper and undue influence by the mayor's office in the police department matters."

The commander's letter appears to urge U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan and state Attorney General Tom Corbett's public corruption unit to investigate.

"I would be greatly disappointed if (they) chose to ignore the findings of the federal court ... especially in light of the fact that so much remains unchanged to this day. I can only hope that our criminal justice system has duly noted the federal court's findings, and I have faith and confidence that the system will take up the task of realizing, undertaking and completing what the temporary injunction hearing was not intended to accomplish," Cmdr. McNeilly's letter said.

Former city operations director Dennis Regan resigned, even though Ravenstahl said an investigation did not prove allegations that Regan intervened in police discipline of an officer who is the brother of the woman with whom he lives.

Referring to Ravenstahl's office, Cmdr. McNeilly wrote that she remains convinced "this administration genuinely believes there has never been any wrongdoing emanating from that office, regardless of what has been said in federal court."

Buchanan has acknowledged receiving Cmdr. McNeilly's letter and said she will take a look at the public record in the court case.

The city has always insisted Cmdr. McNeilly was disciplined only for including a police officer's personnel data in an e-mail to the City Council complaining about Regan.

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