IOWA CITY — Coralville City Council member Mitchell Gross was ticketed under the open container law just before the University of Iowa football game against Iowa State game this month.

UI Police Department records show that he was cited at 1:45 p.m. Sept. 8 for having an open container of alcohol in public. In an email to The Gazette, Gross, 36, of Coralville, said he’d been tailgating at a home on Melrose Avenue when he stepped onto the sidewalk with an open can of beer.

“I understand this was a mistake on my part and I have already mailed in my fine,” he wrote.