He has participated in few forums and taken few hard stands this election season, but now mayoral candidate Kevin Wolff is taking aim at the homeless and a new shelter set to be built in northern Chapel Hill.

Wolff, an attorney running against incumbent Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and fellow challenger Tim Sookram, passed out fliers last week criticizing the shelter site, arguing that when it is built, children will be “assaulted, molested, kidnapped, or killed.”

“It’s not a matter of if this will happen ... it is a matter of when,” the flier says. “Search your heart and your feelings parents; you know this is true!”

The Town Council approved a new men’s homeless shelter at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., to be operated by the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, earlier this year.

The flier continues a pattern of controversial campaign behavior by Wolff, who also ran for mayor in 2009. Two years ago he distributed fliers describing then Town Council member Kleinschmidt as a gay rights activist who has no children and doesn’t own a home in Chapel Hill. He later withdrew from the 2009 race in an effort to swing votes to current council member Matt Czajkowski, who was also running for mayor at the time.

Efforts to reach Wolff for comment this election season have been unsuccessful.

Read the flier below:
 

Documents:

At an election forum this week, mayoral candidate Augustus Cho got the first crack at the question, "What is your position on the rural perimeter?" (That's the boundary that keeps development in Chapel Hill and Carrboro roughly south of I-40 and Eubanks Road, east of Old 86 and north of Highway 54). 

"Moral parameter?" asked Cho. "Was that the question?"

"I think I've heard that one before," said opponent Kevin Wolff.

"No, the rural perimeter," said moderator Jan Richmond, past presdent of the local League of Women Voters.

"I'm sorry," said Cho. "No cheap shot; I didn't mean to."

Cho, like all the other mayoral candidates, said he favored keeping the rural buffer.

At the League of Women Voters candidates forum Monday, an audience member submitted a question asking Kevin Wolff why he was personally attacking Matt Czajkowski in the mayoral campaign. Wolff has been publishing a half-page newspaper ad calling on Czajkowski to drop out of the race so that he and Wolff can be allies on the council. Wolff's campaign mantra has been: "Keep Matt where he's at."

"I'm not having personal attacks against Matt. I'm attacking the position that he's taken to run for mayor," Wolff replied. "I like Matt. I helped him get elected. ... I hope Matt and I get to work together on the Town Council."

Czajkowski said he wished the campaign could focus on the issues. "Chapel Hill dearly needs that discussion," he said. "Mr. Wolff doesn't do some of the candidates for council justice who arguably very much share my views."