The record
- Her job. Megan Norris holds Bend City Council Position 1. On January 11, 2023, the council voted 6–0 to appoint her to Position 1, the seat Melanie Kebler left when she was elected mayor. Mayor Melanie Kebler and Councilors Megan Perkins, Anthony Broadman, Barb Campbell, Ariel Méndez and Mike Riley all voted yes. She was sworn in on January 18, 2023. Voters elected her to Position 1 in November 2024. Her four-year term began in January 2025, and the city lists it as ending in 2028. She works for Hayden Homes, one of Central Oregon's largest home builders, and the city's council page lists her job there as Forward Planning Manager. City minutes from August 2026 record her declaring conflicts of interest because of her job at Hayden Homes. When she was appointed, councilors asked her about conflicts. She told OPB that a few projects might require her to step aside, said she would recuse if that happened, and said she was confident she could navigate it. Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
- Sitting out some of Bend's biggest growth decisions. Councilor Norris works for Hayden Homes. Bend City Council minutes show that she declared a conflict of interest tied to that job and stepped aside from at least one item at 48 of the 110 council meetings with posted minutes. That covers her first meeting on Jan. 18, 2023, through Aug. 12, 2026. Items she sat out include city development fees and system development charges, Southeast Bend annexations and the 2026 climate pollution fee. She also sat out the April 2026 Stevens Road Tract decisions, including the Legacy Village master plan and a 265.7-acre annexation, where Hayden Homes presented for the applicant. She also sat out the 2024 one-time, 100-acre growth-boundary site choice. A Hayden Homes vice president presented one of the two sites in that choice, Jasper Ridge. On Dec. 4, 2024, the council picked the other site, Caldera Ranch, 4-2. Mayor Melanie Kebler, Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins and Councilors Ariel Méndez and Anthony Broadman voted yes, Councilors Mike Riley and Barb Campbell voted no, and Councilor Norris was recused. On trees, she recused from both 2024 votes on the Development Code tree rules and from later tree-code items in 2024, 2025 and 2026. She did vote for the separate 2024 city-code tree chapter after declaring only a potential conflict. The Source Weekly reported on a Sept. 9, 2026 council work session about the tree code. Councilor Steve Platt, Councilor Perkins and Mayor Kebler favored loosening the code, and Councilors Méndez, Riley and Gina Franzosa wanted to keep it as is. Councilor Norris was recused. With the council split, it could not direct staff to change the code. As of Oct. 4, 2026, the city had not posted minutes for that meeting. Councilor Norris's side: in early 2023 she asked the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for advice. In October 2024 she told The Bulletin she had taken part in 96% of votes from January 2023 to June 2024. She also said she had been overly cautious in recusing and that the missed votes had not hindered her ability to be an effective council member, calling it a matter of "the ethically right thing to do." Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]
- A vote she later asked the council to undo. On Feb. 5, 2025, Councilor Megan Norris voted yes on Resolution 3415, which authorized the city's Community and Economic Development Director to grant one-year extensions of land-use approvals for housing projects. It passed 7-0: Mayor Melanie Kebler, Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins and Councilors Gina Franzosa, Ariel Méndez, Mike Riley, Megan Norris and Steve Platt all voted yes. The minutes of that meeting record no conflict-of-interest declaration by her. On March 5, 2025, she moved to rescind the council's Feb. 5 adoption of the resolution. The motion passed 6-0, with Kebler, Perkins, Franzosa, Méndez, Norris and Platt voting yes and Riley excused. She then declared an actual conflict of interest due to her employment with Hayden Homes, recused herself and left the dais. The council re-adopted the resolution 5-0, retroactive to Feb. 5. Kebler, Perkins, Franzosa, Méndez and Platt voted yes, Norris was recused and Riley was excused. The March 5 minutes give her reason: she wanted to rescind it "in order to recuse herself and allow the rest of Council to reconsider the resolution." The minutes also say she had declared a potential conflict on a similar item in the past and "out of an abundance of caution desired to do the same on this item." Sources: [1] [2] [3]
- Her donors. State campaign records (ORESTAR, committee "Friends of Megan Norris") show that the largest contributor to her 2024 campaign was the Central Oregon Association of Realtors PAC, at $16,558.32. That was $5,000 on Sept. 13, 2024, $1,558.32 in-kind for "Surveys and Polls" on Sept. 20, and $10,000 on Sept. 27. Hayden Watson, whom OPB reported owns Hayden Homes, gave $2,000 on Oct. 3, 2024. The state record lists him as president of Watson Development. A donor listed in the record as "VP" at Hayden Homes gave $500 on Aug. 18, 2024. These contributions were publicly reported, and we do not claim that any of them was improper. Councilor Norris told OPB in September 2024 that the Realtors' money would not influence her decision making. In November 2024, OPB reported that she recused herself from the growth-boundary site-selection work session, as she had done before on discussions involving Hayden Homes' interests. Sources: [1] [2] [3]
- Her side, and what our review found. OPB reported that at her January 2023 appointment interview, Councilor Megan Norris, who works for Hayden Homes, said she would recuse herself if Hayden Homes projects came before the council. "I'm confident that there'll be no issues and that I can navigate that," she told OPB. That month, through her attorney, she asked the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for advice before voting on two development-code ordinances (Advice No. 23-021I). Oregon ethics law (ORS 244.120) lets a city councilor take part and vote after publicly announcing a potential conflict of interest. When the conflict is actual, the councilor must announce it and, with narrow exceptions, stay out of the discussion and the vote. The commission publishes 1,648 final case decisions online, the newest dated Sept. 11, 2026, and none of them names her. We reviewed every set of council minutes posted on the city's website from her swearing-in on Jan. 18, 2023 through Aug. 12, 2026; minutes for September 2026 were not yet posted. On every vote where those minutes show Hayden Homes as the applicant or developer, or as an applicant for city money, she declared a conflict and left before the vote:
• Parkside Place master plan and annexation, March 1, 2023: Mayor Kebler and Councilors Broadman, Campbell, Méndez and Riley voted yes, 5-0. Councilor Perkins had left the meeting, and Norris recused.
• Middle-income housing fund awards, Oct. 4, 2023, where Hayden Homes had applied: Kebler, Broadman, Campbell, Méndez, Perkins and Riley voted yes, 6-0, and the money went to other applicants. Norris recused. The minutes' vote line also prints her name, but the count is six and the minutes say she left the dais.
• Magnolia Meadows annexation, Jan. 3, 2024: Broadman, Campbell, Méndez, Perkins and Riley voted yes. Kebler abstained, and Norris recused.
• Growth-boundary site choice, Dec. 4, 2024, where the council picked Caldera Ranch over the Jasper Ridge proposal presented by Crandall Group and Hayden Homes: Kebler, Broadman, Méndez and Perkins voted yes, and Campbell and Riley voted no. Norris recused.
• Legacy Village plan amendments, master plan and annexation, April 15, 2026: Kebler, Méndez, Platt and Riley voted yes and Franzosa voted no. Perkins abstained, and Norris recused. The minutes print the tally as 4-0. She did vote in September 2023 to bring the state-owned Stevens Road Tract into Bend's growth boundary, and in February 2024 on a first reading of its plan amendments. The minutes for those votes do not name Hayden Homes. In September 2025 the state announced it had selected Hayden Homes to buy and develop that land, which became Legacy Village. Our review found no sign in council votes that Hayden Homes got special treatment. In July 2026, Hayden Homes asked the city to explore a local improvement district and a reimbursement district. It also asked whether the city could build a signal at Reed Market Road and 27th Street that Hayden is required to build. A majority of the council supported considering the requests. Staff said it would bring back options, and would report on the signal in December 2026. Norris stayed recused during that discussion. Council minutes cannot show private contacts, and our review did not include her emails or messages with city staff about Hayden matters. Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
To be fair: city minutes show she stepped aside on every vote where Hayden Homes was the applicant or developer, the state ethics commission has never named her, and our review found no special treatment for Hayden Homes. Every item was checked against city minutes, state records and news reports in October 2026.
What you can do
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