All petition papers comprising an initiative or referendum petition shall be assembled and filed with the City Secretary as one instrument. Within ten (10) days after the petition is filed, the City Secretary 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 voters. The City Secretary shall declare any petition paper entirely invalid which does not have attached thereto an affidavit signed by the circulator thereof. After completing his examination of the petition, if the City Secretary certifies 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 petitioners of his findings. The City Secretary shall then notify the Council of the results of his examination at its next regular meeting.
An initiative or referendum petition may be amended at any time within ten (10) days after the notification of the insufficiency has been sent by the City Secretary, by filing of a supplementary petition upon additional papers signed and filed as provided in case of an original petition. The City Secretary shall, within five (5) days after such an amendment is filed, make examination of the amended petition, and, if the petition be still insufficient, he shall file his certificate to that effect in his office, and notify the committee of petitioners of his findings, and no further action shall be had on such insufficient petition. The finding of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prejudice the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
When a referendum petition, or amended petition as defined above, has been certified as sufficient by the City Secretary, the ordinance specified in the petition shall not go into effect, or further action thereunder shall be suspended if it shall have gone into effect, until and unless approved by the voters, as hereinafter provided.