1940, which commenced in August 1942, extended the manager system from the urban county boroughs to the rural administrative counties. The system was modified also in subsequent legislation, particularly the City and County Management (Amendment) Act 1955, which made some adjustments to give greater power to the council members. Under the 1940 act, a county manager was the manager of every borough or municipal town in that county, but from the 1990s had the power to delegate these functions to any other officer of that borough or town council. The Borough of Dún Laoghaire, with nearly the level of autonomy as a county borough, had a borough manager from its 1930 creation. Initially, six pairs of smaller counties shared a manager; the last such case was Laois and Offaly, split in 1982. On several occasions, the Minister for the Environment has suspended a fractious elected council, leaving the manager to run its affairs until the next local elections. The split of Galway city from County Galway in 1985, and of County Dublin into three counties in 1993 saw separate managers appointed. A 2010 report commissioned by the Government suggested reducing the number of county managers from 34 to 24. The mergers of three pairs of local government areas in 2014 were preceded by the appointment of joint managers from 2012. Under provisions of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, the position of "County/City Manager" was replaced by that of "Chief Executive". Existing managers became the initial chief executives, with local authorities gaining the power to veto subsequent appointments and to remove a chief executive for "stated misbehaviour". The Local Government Act 2019 as passed provides a single chief executive for the two adjoining local authorities of Galway city and County Galway. The then government intended this to be in preparation for a full merger of the Galway councils in 2021, a proposal held up by opposition within the Oireachtas. Functions The chief executive performs the executive functions of the county or city council and has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the local authority operates smoothly and for carrying into effect policy decisions of the elected council. He or she supervises, co-ordinates, manages and pays the employees and officers of the council. He or she also makes contracts on behalf of the council and affixes the official seal of the council on documents. The current legislation governing chief executives is Chapter