"Reasonable people can differ, but if I had $200,000, I would not spend it sending lights to festivals that didn't ask for them," said Reeves, who said he would prefer a "more intellectual celebration" of the new century.
Triantafillou said that some Cambridge residents faced graver challenges than a lack of millennial lighting.
"In good conscience cannot support a $200,000 celebration of the millennium," Triantafillou said. "It seems we should be spending the money on something else, like getting affordable housing...if we spend it at all."
She said the city of lights motif might also undercut existing Cambridge tourism campaigns, which stress other themes.
But the council ultimately decided this particular event was worth the cash.
"It comes along once every hundred years," Russell said.