INTERNATIONAL FALLS – International Falls Mayor Harley M. Droba announced Wednesday that he will be challenging incumbent state Rep. Roger Skraba for the House District 3A seat in 2024.
“I believe our citizens and the citizens of the district deserve a representative who is more effective in addressing the issues that genuinely affect our communities,” Droba said in a press release. “It’s time for change, and I am stepping forward to be that change.”
Droba acknowledged that Skraba has only been the District 3A representative for one legislative session, but he has apparently seen enough to believe he could better represent the needs and concerns of the entire district.
“I have found that Roger has been ineffective,” Droba told the Timberjay last Thursday. “As mayor of International Falls I requested to have a hearing on one of our bills, but I wasn’t able to get a hearing in front of the House. We had one bill that we ultimately did get funding for. But I went to St. Paul on multiple occasions to speak with Rep. Skraba. The conversations that I had with him compared to any other representative that I spoke to, Republican or Democrat, well, he wasn’t listening to what concerns we had in our city. In fact, he was telling us about the concerns that other cities in the district had. I found that to be very interesting, because my thought of a representative isn’t whether you agree or disagree, your job is to listen and wade through the information that’s being given to you. And I don’t think that’s what we’re receiving from Roger.”
Droba’s announcement comes several weeks after former state Rep. Rob Ecklund, who narrowly lost to Skraba in 2022, indicated he won’t be seeking his old job again.
Droba said a driving factor behind his decision to run is the state of rural health care, particularly rural emergency medical services, and that will be a primary focus for him if elected. One aspect of the system he’s particularly familiar with as mayor is the financial burden threatening rural ambulance services.
“I know for a fact that Ely is going through it, and so is Virginia and Hibbing and International Falls,” he said.
A significant challenge Droba sees lies in the fact that a community-based ambulance service is assigned a mandated service area by the state, in the case of International Falls 989 square miles, but there’s no complimentary mechanism for requiring funding from other communities or governmental entities in those service areas.
“Using my city as an example, there’s no mechanism or tool for us to go to other entities such as Koochiching County or Ranier – the only entity that ends up having to take on that financial burden is the municipality that ends up providing the service,” Droba said. “There has to be a way to negotiate a rate to be able to offer that service, because right now if any community has major runs outside their community they’re stuck with the bill, and it’s becoming $500,000 a year that goes on the taxpayers of those communities.”
Droba said he’s also concerned over the inequity created for rural public health services versus metro areas because funding is based on population. That creates a situation where rural public health staff are limited and overburdened, he said.
“We have staff in our counties that have to do the jobs of four or five people from the metro areas,” Droba said. “They’re not actually able to provide all of the services that are being funded because they spend all their time doing the paperwork that they have to provide. There has to be a tweak to the system on how you fund these things, because we’re an aging population where we need to utilize public health considerably more that you would in the metro area with more opportunities.”
Dovetailing with his concerns for rural health care are the military veterans who often have to travel to Minneapolis to get service for their health care needs, Droba said. As a four-year U.S. Army veteran, and through his engagement with his local VFW post, Droba said he’s seen the need to be an advocate for increased telehealth services for veterans. He said he’s also committed to looking at how Minnesota’s tax system affects military retirement benefits to be sure veterans aren’t negatively affected.
Droba’s military service involved telecommunications, and after his discharge he had jobs in Minneapolis and Denver working for WorldCom, a telecommunications company. While acknowledging that his experience from many years ago doesn’t make him an expert in today’s world of high-speed broadband access, Droba said he’s committed to bringing the benefits quality broadband provides to the citizens in the district.
“I served on the Koochiching Technology Initiative, which is one of the things we did here to try to bring in more high-speed broadband,” he said. “You cannot go without being connected these days. If we’re going to be able to attract people for tourism in northern Minnesota, we have to have the connectivity. You have to have digital equity to be able to keep up with your work or community.”
Droba acknowledges that there are numerous issues affecting the district such as wolf management, mining, and logging that he’s not been directly involved with and needs to learn more about. “But I look at this as a huge opportunity to have someone with fresh eyes that hasn’t been indoctrinated in 100-percent mining or 100-percent we have to save the environment,” Droba said. “I’m really open to listening to every view to understand and make educated decisions that make the most sense.”
Droba said he didn’t run for mayor in his border town because of any single issue, but because he wanted to change the contentious nature of the city council’s decision-making process. He said he’s been successful with that locally, and he wants to bring that same civil quality to the Legislature.
“We have disagreements at city council all the time, but there’s no bickering, there’s no fighting,” Droba said. “I just believe that we have to bring civility back to government, and I think that having people who are willing to work and compromise goes a long way.”
While not noted in his press release, Droba will be running as a DFL candidate.
“It was really important to hone in on the messaging right now, to just get out there that I’m running,” Droba said. “I’ve been working with the DFL for the last six or seven months just trying to get an understanding of the whole process. But I’m not hiding in any capacity that I’m running under the DFL.”
For more insights into Droba’s campaign, his vision, and his stance on various issues, visit HarleyDroba.com or his Facebook page, Harley Droba for House 3A.
An official campaign kickoff event is being planned for January. More details will be shared closer to the date.