No way.

Such was the City of Auburn’s response to a letter it received April 13, informing officials here of a Washington corporation’s offer to open for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) “a halfway house” in Auburn, capable of housing up to 112 convicted felons who are within a few months of their release dates.

“We unequivocally oppose the siting of this type of service within our city, and that the location that they have identified was not zoned truly to even accommodate that kind of facility,” declares the City letter sent last week.

The April 13 letter from the Mukilteo-based Rêver Corporation said it intended to submit a proposal to site the facility at One 116th Street Northeast, where the Comfort Inn is, after “modestly upgrading certain features,” of the hotel.

The Washington Secretary of State’s website identifies the Rêver Corporation as a for-profit corporation formed on March 2, 2015. Its agent is Yongwan Seo. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office told the Auburn Reporter that the corporation’s business is international development, import export and financial consulting.

The deadline to respond to the FBOP’s request for proposals (RFP) was April 20. The FBOP has not disclosed how many parties responded to its RFP.

According to Bureau of Prisons personnel, the RFPs went out in January, inviting interested parties to submit proposals to create would officially be called the Reentry Center Services and Home Confinement Services facility.

Except it appears that in the months between then and now, the FBOP neglected to inform the City of Auburn about what it was doing, though Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke acknowledged her City had received notification.

“(April 13) was the absolute first we had heard of any of this,” Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus told a study session of the Auburn City Council on Monday evening.

“The City of Kent did receive notice from the department that it was seeking proposals, but that’s as far as it’s gotten. We have not heard whether any property owner in this community has submitted a proposal,” Cooke said.

In the April 13 letter, the Rêver Corporation discloses that FBOP’s estimated requirements are 25 beds for men and six beds for women at the beginning of the contracting term, increasing incrementally to 48 beds for men and 12 beds for women. The goal is to offer offenders the chance to find a job, a place to live and to re-enter the community through “a structured, supportive environment.”

A spokesperson for the City of Renton said she was unaware of any such notice.

By the date the City got its letter, the comment period had passed, without any prior notification that there was to be a comment period, regarding a proposal the City knew nothing about.

In the April 13 letter, Jeremy Seo, Rêver’s chief financial officer, explained to Lee the reason for the letter. He said the law required that the local jurisdiction be notified of Rêver’s intention to build there.

Although the date to comment had passed without any notification, the FBOP told Lee that it would still accept the City’s comments.

The Auburn Reporter tried to contact David Kwok, owner of the Comfort Inn in Auburn to determine if he was aware of the proposal, but he was away from his office.

“In our opinion, hopefully, it is a done deal,” Backus said. “We wanted to make sure everyone was aware that we are in no way advocating for this type of facility in the city of Auburn. The Bureau of Prisons RFP was to site this type of facility in South King County. We don’t know how many proposals they have received … The whole process is, in our opinion, more than a bit flawed.”

“I understand the need for these kinds of facilities, but this location is very, very bad in my view,” said City Counclman Rich Wagner, adding that the City should work with the Muckleshoot Tribe, “because if these guys are going around our corners, they’re probably going around the Tribe’s corners, too.”

Councilwoman Largo Wales said the situation reminded her of the City’s recent efforts to prevent King County from siting a waste transfer station in Auburn.

“I just feel once again we are dumped on,” Wales said.