The money has to be spent on public art, so it can't be spent on anything else. I kind of like it, myself and it would be a huge coup for Sacramento to have a piece of art from an artist this famous.
Unless they pick something horribly mundane and boring, there will be some who like it and some who don't. I've rarely heard of any decent piece of art that didn't arouse strong feelings both for and against it. The Indo Arch outside the Holiday Inn at the downtown plaza aroused extreme loathing and calls for its removal when it was installed. Now most people don't even notice it. Its just part of the Sacramento landscape.
I'll guarantee the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago caused exactly the type of comments being posted here from people hating it. However, its absolutely an iconic piece of art in Chicago now and countless people go to that place just to see the sculpture and have their picture taken next to it. By the way, it cost $23 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate
Edit: I totally respect that some people don't like this piece of art. I don't like all art, either. You can't possibly please everybody with a piece of art. Even if they pick a piece of art I don't like, I would not try and stop it, unless it were obviously pornographic or bigoted. I don't have to like all public art and I don't. But I respect art and feel there should be many different types of art, especially including art that evokes strong responses, positive and negative. If art doesn't evoke strong feelings, the artist may have missed the mark.
I should point out that it won't be the city council picking the art. Its usually a commission of local art experts who make the recommendation.