At Opposite Sides of the 'Mitten,' Sibling Rivalry Connects Two Court Administrators

By Elaine Moore, Court Administrator, 73B District Court (Huron County)

I am the YOUNGER sibling, and I am the court administrator at the 73B District Court in Bad Axe.  I began my career much later than my older sister, Diane Reinke, because I am much younger than her.  I began my employment with Huron County at the Michigan State University Extension Office in 1984 after graduating from Ferris State University.  I worked there for three years and then transferred to the Huron County Prosecutor’s Office in 1987 and stayed there until September 1995. 

Elaine Moore -- the
YOUNGER sibling

While working at the prosecutor’s office I was the child support investigator/office manager.  In September 1995, I transferred to the 73B District Court and was the probation officer until March 1998.  In March 1998, I became the court recorder/judicial assistant until July 2004, when I was promoted to court administrator.  The Hon. Karl Kraus was district judge until his retirement in December 2007, and then the Hon. David B. Herrington was appointed the district judge in January 2008 until present.  In July 2018, I began my 35th year with Huron County.

Diane and I often share ideas, procedures, personnel issues and other court matters, and often compare our abstract timeliness, collection rates, etc., even though Huron County is much smaller than Newaygo County.  It is a small competition to see who receives higher timeliness for the month from the Secretary of State or who has better collection percentages or performance measures with SCAO.  We are quite fortunate to share the same passion and have the same struggles/frustrations.  We share the same regional administrator at SCAO (Bruce Kilmer). 

Sisters Diane and Elaine

At first, people did not believe that we were actually sisters, as one of us looks more like our mother and one like our father; and one of us is slender and the other one is not.  I tell everyone that my sister belongs to the “milkman” because we really don’t look much alike.   Kevin McKay (SCAO Management Analyst and former court administrator) did not believe we were sisters and we had to prove it to him with family photos.  He told us if we are sisters than he is our brother, and so we adopted him! 

Because we are in the same region and the same profession, we attend a lot of meetings together and the annual conference.  If one of us shows up for a meeting and the other sister is not there, we are always asked, “Where is your sister?”  We usually room together so we get to spend some time together; we live on opposite sides of the state, so it gives us a chance to see each other in between holidays and family functions. 

Diane does try to tell everyone she taught me everything she knows, but I tell her that is not true.  I tell her she missed the step of being probation officer since we are both CERs and then became court administrators.  I really do appreciate having her in the same profession for ideas/guidance, but I don’t want it to go to her head!