The commission shall have power to promote public interest in, and understanding of, the master plan, and, to that end, may publish and distribute copies of the plan, or of any report, and may employ such other means of publicity and education as it may determine. The commission may authorize its members and staff to attend city planning conferences or meetings and pay the expenses incident thereto. The commission shall, from time to time, recommend to the appropriate public officials programs for specific improvements and for the financing thereof. It shall be part of its duties to consult and advise with public officials and agencies, public utility companies, civic, educational, professional, and other organizations, and citizens, with relation to the carrying out of the plan. The commission shall have the right to accept and use gifts for the exercise of its functions. All public officials shall, upon request, furnish to the commission, within a reasonable time, such available information as it may require for its work. The clerk of council shall, upon introduction into council, furnish to the city planning commission for its consideration a copy of all ordinances and bills relating to the location of any public building of the city, and to the location, extension, widening, enlargement, ornamentation, and parking of any street, boulevard, parkway, park, playground, or other public grounds and to the vacation of any street or other alteration of the city plan of streets and highways, and to the location of any bridge, wharf, tunnel or subway, or of any surface, underground or elevated railway. The said commission may make a report or suggestion in relation thereto if it deems a report necessary or advisable for the consideration of council. All such reports, when delivered to the clerk of council, shall be for the information of the public as well as of council, and the commission shall furnish to any newspaper of the city on request for publication a copy of any such report. The commission, its members, officers and employés, in the performance of their functions, may enter upon any land and make examinations and surveys and place and maintain necessary monuments and marks thereon. In general the commission shall have such powers as may be necessary to enable it to fulfill its functions and carry out the purposes of this act.