The Cambridge City Council last night defeated a motion introduced by Councillor Alfred E. Vellucci that would have put to a referendum the question of whether Frank J. Frisoli '35, Cambridge school superintendent, should be rehired next year.

The Council reached its 5-to-4 decision after several hours of testimony by Frisoli's supporters and heated debate among the Councillors. As the roll-call vote ended, Vellucci rose from his seat yelling. "Power to the people!"

The Cambridge School Committee earlier this year brought 29 charges against Frisoli and decided against rehiring him. The dismissal resulted in the formation of a Citizens for Frisoli Committee, headed by Lorraine Butler, who was the first witness to testify before the Council last night.

Petition for Frisoll

Citizens for Frisoli raised a petition with the names of over 12 per cent of the Cambridge population, the percentage necessary to force the School Committee to reconsider its decision.

Upon receiving the petition, the School Committee once again voted to oust Frisoli. Vellucci's motion was designed to override this decision.

Councillor Robert Moncrieff produced at the hearing last night an official opinion given by the City Solicitor, Philip M. Cronin '53, stating that a referendum would not be permissible.

Among the witnesses testifying for the reinstatement of Frisoli was a woman whose school-age son had been beaten in his school three times since Frisoli's dismissal. "I say we keep Mr. Frisoli and discipline in the schools of Cambridge," she said to the Council and a largely sympathetic group of about 75 spectators.

Apparently responding to a black woman in the audience who said that Frisoli "has been fair to all the children." Councillor Henry F. Owens III said that the blacks he had spoken to "were not pleased with Frisoli." He added that the entire issue is becoming a "political football."

In response to Owens's charge. Vellucci said. "If anybody made a political football out of the Frisoli issue, it was the gang running for office in the last election."