Mayor Nadine Woodward pledged this week to conduct an audit as the city disclosed it expects the Spokane Fire Department to blow past its 2022 budget by as much as $5 million. Sick leave usage and overtime costs have soared in recent months, according to city officials, who pledged to analyze ways to rein in spending. Woodward announced a comprehensive external review of leave usage Tuesday. "This particular issue did come as a surprise, so I think we need to do a little deeper dive into how we got here," Woodward said in an interview. City Council members soundly disagreed and said they've been raising concerns about the Fire Department budget for months, and overtime spending practices for years. The union, too, was baffled. The surprise from officials "doesn't make sense to me," said Randy Marler, president of Spokane Firefighters Union Local 29.