§ 37. Filing, examination and certification of petitions.

All petition papers comprising a petition shall be assembled and filed with the city clerk as one instrument. Within twenty days after a petition is filed, the city clerk shall determine whether each paper of the petition has a proper statement of the circulator and whether the petition is signed by a sufficient number of qualified electors, and shall hold any petition paper entirely invalid which does not have attached thereto the statement signed by the circulator thereof. The city clerk shall certify the result of his examination to the council at its next regular meeting. If he shall certify that the petition is insufficient he shall set forth in his certificate the particulars in which it is defective and shall at once notify the person filing same of his findings.